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Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Where in the World to Grow Pigs? – Trends in U.S. Pork Production
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2007 | No Comments
The United States and Canada have occupied premier positions as pork production locales for the past decade. Virtually nowhere else in the world has the combination of natural resources and know-how for pork production that exists in our two countries. Policy decisions and the changing world energy situation, however, are putting significant pressures on pork producers and processors in both countries; changing the future direction of both industries and causing us to re-think the two countries’ positions in the future world pork industry. This paper addresses several trends in the U.S. industry that are shaping it at present and that will continue to shape it in the future. The U.S. is expected to remain a major player in the world pork market but these forces could affect that position in coming years. Nothing is having a greater impact on current profitability and future plans than the growth of corn-based ethanol production in the U.S. Driven by higher oil prices, changes in oxygenating ingredients and widespread public support, the number of ethanol plants has expanded rapidly and continues to do so. These plants, not surprisingly, are generally located near major corn producing areas of the Midwest – the same place that the bulk of U.S. hog production is located. The demand for corn by ethanol plants is changing corn basis patterns drastically, driving up Iowa and Minnesota corn prices, and thus removing a major source of competitive advantage. As corn prices have risen, so have feed costs for U.S. pork producers. More than corn prices have driven the increase in feed costs. Soybean and soybean meal prices have risen as the soybean industry bids up prices in order to compete for crop acres. Higher feed prices and, now, lower hog prices have put an end to one of the most profitable periods in the history of the U.S. pork industry. However, consumer-level demand for pork in the U.S. has been more-or-less steady since the mid-1980s. 2006 marked the lowest level ever for the University of Missouri’s demand index but it rebounded some in 2007 and was 1.9% larger than in 2006 through August 2007. Export demand for U.S. pork remains strong even though productivity thus far in 2007 has been less than stellar. It appears likely that the U.S. will set its 16th straight record year for pork exports. U.S. productivity growth will resume over the next year or two. Much of the herd has now switched to later weaning and once that is accomplished, any true gains in sow productivity will be compared to the same production system one year earlier thus allowing the gain to show up in the data. In addition, circovirus vaccines are having the same “miraculous” impacts in the U.S. that they had in Canada and will thus begin to contribute greatly to productivity growth in terms of pigs reaching market weight and higher market weights as the number of light pigs is reduced. This has an impact on the U.S. hog cycle which can be traced back over 200 years, production changes being steadily and slightly positive over the past 3 years has made the hog cycle obsolete. Along with the demise of the hog cycle, is the presence of a highly inelastic hog demand that penalizes any large increases in output. The impacts of these trends on the U.S. climate for hog production is mixed. Environmental and social, small-farm pressure is still intense in many regions and serves to prohibit or at least significantly slow pork production expansion. Corn availability could well become an issue for industry expansion but many grain farmers are starting to question the wisdom of using corn for ethanol versus pigs simply due to the fact that ethanol doesn’t produce valuable crop nutrients in the form of manure. The pressure for more corn-on-corn production will enhance manure’s value and make pig feeding more attractive to many Midwestern grain operations. Whether the social climate will allow this production to happen remains to be seen. Things are changing but with change comes opportunity. It will be no different for the U.S. pork industry.
Gestating sows prefer concentrate diets to high-fibre diet in two-choice tests
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The feed preferences of gestating sows were investigated in sixteen Large White X Landrace nulliparous sows, when
offered feeds of different fibre and protein contents in two-choice preference tests carried out between their 8th
to 13th weeks of gestation.
Intake, digestibility and N retention by growing pigs fed ensiled or dried Taro (Colocasia esculenta) leaves as the protein supplement in basal diets of rice bran/broken rice or rice bran/cassava root meal
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Colocasia esculenta var. antiquorum known as Taro or Cocoyam is widely distributed in the humid tropics including India and
South East Asia. Taro is recognized as a large coarse herb with crowns of large oblong-oval leaves and an abundance of large
spherical underground tubers. Taro can be grown under flooded or upland conditions and it is one of the important crops for poor
resource farmers in the tropics. In Cambodia, Taro is known in Khmer as ‘Trao’. It is planted for home consumption of both tubers
and petioles. However, when there is production in excess of household needs, Taro leaves and petioles are cooked and fed to pigs.
Taro leaves are rich in protein, minerals and vitamins. The aim of the present experiment was to study the effect of ensiling or drying Taro leaves on intake, digestibility and N retention
of growing pigs given a basal diet of rice bran mixed with broken rice or rice bran mixed with cassava root meal. It was found that the apparently higher nutritive value of sun-dried compared with ensiled Taro leaves may have been caused by inadequacies in the ensiling process, resulting in excessive breakdown of the protein and poor palatability.
Also, the relatively high values of N retention (equivalent to about 250 g/day of live weight gain) and of retained N as a proportion of digested N in the diet with sun-dried Taro leaves, are indicative of a high biological value of the Taro leaf protein, especially it represented over 80% of the dietary crude protein these diets.
12 Born Alive: It's Not all Hugs and Kisses
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Effects of dietary crude protein level on odour from pig manure
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Odour emission from pig production facilities causes serious nuisance in the surrounding areas, and should therefore be reduced. Odour is mainly generated by the microbial conversion of feed in the intestinal tract of pigs and by microbial conversion of pigs’ excreta under anaerobic conditions in manure storages. Protein is an important dietary compound that could be altered to reduce odour emission. Reducing protein or nitrogen concentration in excreta decreases the availability of substrates that microbes can metabolise to odorous compounds. It is clear from the literature that ammonia from animal production facilities can be decreased considerably by reducing the amount of protein in the diet and at the same time supplementing most essential amino acids to balance the amino acid pattern and to maintain animal performance (Hobbs et al., 1996; Canh et al., 1998b; Zervas and Zijlstra, 2002; Portejoie et al., 2004). Scientists mainly focused on certain specific odorous compounds in the manure or in the odorous air and little attention has been given to the effect of dietary crude protein levels on odour emission measured by olfactometry. Odour measured by olfactometry is evaluated through its strength (odour concentration and odour intensity) and offensiveness (odour hedonic value). The objective of this study was to determine the effects of dietary crude protein level on odour emission, odour intensity, hedonic tone, and ammonia emission from pig manure and on manure composition (pH, total nitrogen, ammonium, volatile fatty acids, indolic, phenolic and sulphur-containing compounds). An experiment was conducted with growing pigs in a randomised complete-block design with three treatments in six blocks. Treatment groups were 12%, 15% and 18% crude protein diets. Barley was exchanged for soya-bean meal. Crystalline amino acids were included in the 12% crude protein diet up to the level of pigs’ requirement; the same amount of Crystalline amino acids were added to the 15% and 18% crude protein diets. Pigs with an initial body weight of 36.5 ± 3.4 kg were individually penned in partly slatted floor pens and offered a daily feed allowance. Faeces and urine of each pig were accumulated together in a separate manure pit under the slatted floor. After an adaptation period of 2 weeks, the manure pits were cleaned and manure was collected. In the 5th week of the collection period, air samples for odour and ammonia analyses, and manure samples were collected directly from each manure pit. Air samples were analysed for odour concentration and for hedonic value and intensity above odour detection threshold. Manure samples were analysed for volatile fatty acids, and indolic, phenolic and sulphurous compounds, ammonium and total nitrogen concentrations. It was concluded that reducing dietary crude protein from 18% to 12% lowered odour emission and ammonia emission from pig manure by 80% and 53%, respectively. Therefore a reduction of dietary crude protein and at the same time providing essential amino acids is an option to reduce odour emission as well as ammonia emission from pig manure.
Novel Feed Grains and Pulses in Western Canada
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This paper summarizes recent research findings on two novel feed crops, triticale and zero-tannin (ZT) fababean. It also provides a perspective as to where the new feed industry in North America is heading. The primary driver for considering triticale as feed grain was its higher yield than wheat. The second driver was its alluded “higher” net energy value compared to corn. Therefore, triticale should outperform wheat in hog diets. The objectives of the study on triticale was to evaluate its feeding value as a replacement for wheat (HRS or CPS), and to compare the performance of weaned pigs offered different triticale varieties. For the overall trial and the first three weeks, replacing wheat with triticale did not affect daily feed disappearance or weight gain. Pigs fed the triticale diets had better overall feed efficiency than those fed either the HRS or CPS wheat diet. AC Ultima was the most comparable triticale variety to CPS and HRS wheat in terms of animal response. However, pigs utilized more energy and retained more protein, calcium and phosphorus from all four varieties of triticale compared to both varieties of wheat. The other aspect of this paper summarizes the recent findings of using ZT fababean in swine diets. The primary driver for considering the use of ZT fababean was yield. In years with adequate rainfall, it out-yields pea in the Black and Grey Wooded soils zones of central and north-western Alberta (Park et al 1999), where pork expansion is more likely to occur. The second driver was air nitrogen fixing. In contrast to pea, dry bean, chickpea and lentil, ZT fababean allows air nitrogen-fixing beyond blooming until the plant dries (Park et al 1999). The third driver was its high energy and protein content, which may displace imported soybean meal (Dening et al 2004). The objective of one study was to evaluate the feeding value of ZT Fababean by including 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40% of ZT fababean in the pigs diet. Surprisingly young pigs tolerated well up 40% without detrimental effect on performance. The primary objective of the latest trial with ZT fababean was to generate additional performance data on a commercial scale. This trial also compared the performance of hogs fed ZT fababean not only against those fed imported soybean meal again, but also for the first time, against hogs fed the locally grown field pea. Triticale and ZT fababean have not only proven to be promising feedstuffs in their raw form, but offer the potential to be further value-added as food, feed and bio-industrial co-products. Triticale grain may be segregated into several components
(protein, starch, fibre) prior to fermenting the starch to ethanol resulting in a more efficient process than the current fermentation scheme producing high fibre distillers grain. The potential for a whole array of co-products make this triticale initiative very enticing. Also, ZT fababean has been successfully fractionated into starch and high protein concentrates. No high cost wet separation followed by sophisticated spray-drying is required. In this low cost and fast process, we take 28% crude protein ZT fababean to a 70% crude protein concentrate in minutes! We hope the protein concentrates will find markets in breakfast bars, high-protein snacks, aquaculture, pet foods, and baby animal diets. The starch fractions will find markets in the bakery, paint and paper industry among a few. In summary, our excitement with triticale and ZT fababean is not merely founded on their resulting animal performance when fed in raw form. Triticale offers higher yield, disease and drought tolerance, as well as high net energy for swine. ZT fababean offers higher yield, longer N-fixing, as well as high energy and protein. The potential to produce more lean pork per unit of land is there. And both crops can be further value-added as co- products of interest to the food, feed and bio-industrial industries.