The Edinburgh Modified Cage for laying hens.

Posted in: Welfare by admin on January 1, 1995 | No Comments

Alternative Housing and Environmental Needs for Grower-Finisher Pigs

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Conventional grower-finisher barns can cost $175 to $250 per pig housed. If straw is available and other factors such as manure handling, barn siting, pig handling, building life span, pig health and differences in feed conversion are considered, then alternative housing such as “bioshelters” at $55 to $65 per pig housed may be attractive. This article will review the engineering aspects of alternative housing.

Air pollution from livestock building

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Long-term measurements are made to produce an inventory of different gaseous emissions from livestock building in UK. This inventory is made to in order to further know the present emissions and be able adjust and meet the greenhouse gas emissions reduction at 1990 levels by 2000 (from the Earth Summit in Rio).
Short terms measurements are also made as part of a European project. With the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany intensive monitoring is done in the summer and the winter for 24 hours periods on UK livestock buildings of 12 different types. The ammonia, methane and nitrous gases concentrations are measured as well as the inspirable and respirable dust. This sampling are done at 3 locations at the animal level and 3 locations at the workers levels in the building and also one sampling is done outside to evaluate a background level. Comparable techniques and equipments are used in each country of the four countries. The emissions rates of the contaminants are evaluated from the data measured and the estimated ventilation rates obtained via a carbon dioxide balance.

SWAMP : Sustainable Waste Application Management Project

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As the nutrient content in the manure is not always easy to determined, farmers tend to consider manure more as a waste to dispose. SWAMP aims at the development of new technologies to improve manure utilization by nutrient determination, spreading accuracy and pollution prevention. A computer program is being developed in order integrate the estimated nutrients in manure to a pollution risk assessment and decision support for spreading and ultimately control the application rate according to the spreading recommendations and the field conditions by acting on the tanker control system. This program would also maintain detailed records.

Le recyclage du lisier de porc par lagunage.

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The system presented in this publication is an integrated nutrient recycling chain: manure – micro-algae – micro-shellfish – fish. The system developed is meant to be simple of operation in order to be easily integrated on the same site than the production buildings and to the farm operations. The biotreatment rely on normal bio-climatic conditions that nature provides without important human intervention. As a result, the biological activity in temperate climate will slow considerably during the cold season. Different techniques could be used to keep the biological activity however they are considered expensive and have not yet been studied. Another criteria retained is that the biomass produced have to be easily integrated in the agro-food economics and ideally directly at the farm level. Considering the algae-micro-shellfish chain, the biomass produced can be used for different purposes including as feed component for aquatic and terrestrial animals. The publication gives information on the biological and biochemical processes involved in the recycling chain, the valorization of the biomass, the economical and sanitary aspects of such recycling and the conception and management of such systems. Succinct information is also given on other treatment processes.
This recycling chain is interesting as the manure is reused in a longer chain than only manure concentration, treatment and reintroduction directly in the feed. However such lagoon system for biomass production doesn’t work when the weather too cold. Such system would be efficient only few months a year when the cold season is long.

A Study on the Air Flow and Odor Emission Rate from a Simplied Open Manure Storage Tank

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To represent the odor dispersion with the use of mathematical models, the odor emission rate should be defined as it is an input parameter of the model. Odor emission rates from open manure tanks are difficult to evaluate and a study was realized to develop a numerical evaluation of air flow and odor emission rate. The tank dimensions, the odor concentration at the manure surface, the manure surface area and the wind speed were input parameters for the mathematical model developed using the SIMPLER algorithm from Patankar and a 2-layer turbulence model to realize numerical simulation with a 152 x 139 grid. Experimental verifications were performed to validate the model for air flow pattern and velocity profile and the emission rate results obtained agreed with field measurements obtained in the literature.

Dispersion models can be effective tool to evaluate the odor dispersion pattern of an odorant source and the area affected. As mentioned, another numerical model was needed to evaluate the odor emission rate of open manure tanks and those odor emissions rate are costly to evaluate with field measurements.

Diffusion of rural biogas technology: survey of experience

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Removal of vitamins and trace minerals from finishing diets

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Maximizing net income from pork production requires consideration of all aspects of diet formulation. Energy is the most expensive component of the diet, followed closely by amino acids. While representing a smaller portion of the total feed bill, minerals and vitamins still represent a significant expense, one which needs to be reflected in benefit to the pig and value to the pork producer. The finishing phase of production was targeted in this study because this is the period when most of the feed is consumed. In addition, it is known that certain vitamins are effectively stored in the liver and fatty tissue and also that cereal grains and other dietary components contain significant quantities of at least some of the vitamins which are less effectively stored by the pig. With animals destined for market, there would be no need to consider the impact on subsequent reproductive performance. This experiment was conducted to determine if removal of vitamins and trace minerals from the finishing diet for periods of approximately 3 or 5 weeks prior to slaughter would affect the animal performance and carcass merit. No differences among treatments were observed, suggesting that removal of such supplements may be without affecting animal performance or well-being. The economic benefit of such a change will vary among farms, depending on the current cost of supplementation; it is estimated that a typical savings of about $1.00 per pig sold may be realized.

Electroejaculation: a welfare issue?

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Anatomical consequences of partial beak amputation (beak trimming) in turkeys.

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