New Ventilation Guide

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on January 1, 1994 | No Comments

Introducing Swine Building Ventilation a

Formulation of diets to minimize pollution

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It is important to consider the impact of animal production on the environment. Several countries have installed regulations or recommendations to minimize the impact that animal agriculture has on pollution. These recommendations tend to lead to an increased cost of production as well as causing producers to seek a means to reduce the production of animal waste. This article discusses the situation in the Netherlands with a primary focus on swine. Some nutritional means may have relevance to North America.
With more than 15 million pigs and 2 million dairy cows on 37,000 sq.km. of land in the Netherlands, there is a large amount of manure produced. This manure tends to be high in minerals, which has had negative effects on soil, water and air quality. In current legislation, phosphate has been used to quantify manure production. This has given producers an incentive to reduce total manure volume by increasing its dry matter content. The use of heavy mineral growth promoters has already been abolished for years.
On swine farms, the efficiency of mineral retention is very low, for potassium (3.6 a

Feeding value of various wheat samples for pigs

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on January 1, 1993 | No Comments

Knowledge of the feeding value of the various ingredients in swine diets is important for accurate feed formulation and to estimate the value of these ingredients. Typically, it is not very accurate to use average values to estimate feed values of individual ingredient samples. The 1992 Saskatchewan crop is an example of how nutrient value can vary and was expected to vary considerably because of weather conditions. This crop presented a unique opportunity to estimate feeding value in different samples of various cereal grains, and more importantly, to identify relationships between feeding value and simple repeatable measurements on representative sub-samples. A study was conducted to determine feeding value of 16 different wheat samples for growing pigs.
Sixteen wheat samples expected to vary in feed value were collected in Saskatchewan. Each sample was submitted for chemical analysis to determine dry matter, energy, protein, amino acid, starch, crude fibre, acid detergent fibre, neutral detergent fibre and ash content. The samples were also evaluated in a digestibility study to determine digestible energy content and digestibility of various nutrients. Of the 16 samples, 14 samples had been exposed to drought during the growing season. Differences in nutrient content between extreme samples were close to 30% for protein, 30% for lysine and 10% for digestible energy content. The durum wheat sample evaluated seemed quite different than the other wheat samples, and was therefore excluded from most of the statistical analysis. The current studies support the anticipated variation in feeding value between the different wheat samples of the 1992 crop in Saskatchewan.

Calcium and phosphorus levels in diets

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Calcium and phosphorus play a role in many physiological processes in addition to development and maintenance of the skeleton. Calcium is seen as a relatively inexpensive ingredient, but phosphorus is the third most expensive nutrient after energy and protein (amino acids). It is important to consider both minerals when formulating a diet since the level of calcium in the diet affects phosphorus uptake. The objective of the current study is to determine the effect of dietary calcium and phosphorus levels on animal performance and on bone mineralization in growing-finishing pigs. The amount of available phosphorus in different ingredients varies considerably. Therefore, swine diets should be formulated on the basis of available phosphorus rather than total phosphorus. It is generally found that calcium and phosphorus levels in practical grower-finisher diets are higher than those recommended by the NRC (1998). It is also known that higher dietary levels of calcium and phosphorus are required for bone mineralization than for optimum growth rate and feed efficiency. During the trial three dietary treatments were provided, high, medium and low levels of dietary calcium and phosphorus. To evaluate bone mineralization, metacarpal and metatarsal bones from carcasses from 3 gilts and 3 barrows in each treatment was analyzed.
Results suggested no difference in any of the animal performance parameters between the high and medium calcium and phosphorus levels. During the grower phase, performance only slightly reduced at the low calcium and phosphorus level. When low levels of calcium and phosphorus were fed, it was calculated that available phosphorus was 30% lower than recommended by the NRC (1998). The present study did not provide any evidence that the available phosphorus levels in grower-finisher diets should be any higher than those suggested by the NRC (1998). Further research is needed to determine whether the available phosphorus levels in grower-finisher diets can be further reduced as the calcium to available phosphorus is increased.

Biotin in barley based diets

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Biotin is one of the B-vitamins that pigs require for efficient utilization of dietary carbohydrates, fat and protein. It has also been related to reproductive performance in sows and may be required for normal hoof development. Some research suggests that higher levels of biotin in grow-finish diets improves carcass fat, which may improve the shelf life of fresh pork products. According the NRC no biotin additions are required in diets for growing-finishing pigs since some biotin is present in most swine feed ingredients. However, most of the research on the effect of additional biotin on performance of growing pigs has been done with corn a

Transport of sulphate in the brush border membrane

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DDGS in Swine Nutrition

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on January 1, 0000 | No Comments

This paper summarizes the current information available to pork producers for adding distillera

Effectiveness of Three Manure Pit Additives in Commercial Scale Manure Channels and Simulated Outdoor Storage

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