Integration of Immigrant Labour into Workplace and Communities

Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2007 | No Comments

The purpose of this paper is to enhance cultural sensitivity; develop awareness of cultural adaptation stages; and to provide an overview of key elements for integrating foreign workers into the workplace and community. In order to effectively facilitate the integration, we must explore the key concepts of culture, adaptation, and awareness. Culture can be defined as “the learned and shared values, beliefs, and behaviours of a group of interacting people” (Bennett & Bennett, 2007). As a starting point for integrating foreign workers into the workplace and community, we must recognize that: (1) cultural differences exist; (2) all cultures are deeply engrained in the hearts, minds and behaviours of their members; and (3) no culture is superior or inferior to any other, they are just different. (Adler, 1998, p. 236) As foreign workers enter a new culture, an inevitable process of personal transition begins. It is important to note that adapting to a new culture is a “process”, not an event. In the case of foreign workers, it is mutually beneficial for hosting employers to foster a smooth transition. Cultural adaptation is, after all, about two cultures interacting with each other; and happy workers tend to be more productive workers and stay with their employer longer. Awareness on several levels is crucial to facilitating the integration of foreign workers. These include awareness of differences in cultural values and communication styles; your own cultural predispositions; the process of cultural adaptation including culture shock; and some practical strategies for fostering successful adaptation. The success of both existing and new workers will depend on how well prepared they and you are for this intercultural work experience. Enjoy the opportunity to interact and work with individuals from different cultures. The journey, even if a bit bumpy at times, will fill you with satisfaction if both parties engage in the enriching process of mutual adaptation and learning.

Identification of a female-pig profile associated with lower productivity on commercial farms

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

Some positive results, but continued vigilance and assessment required

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

Our June issue told the stories of three more producers whose herds have been afflicted with PRRS. They have not yet won the battle, but all have undertaken testing or made changes with a view to returning to PRRS-negative status
:The Vanden Boogaards of Gorrie, Huron County
:Darryl and Cheryl Terpstra, Birchlawn Farms, near Dorking
:Ron and Glen Manjin, Teeswater Pork, Huron County

Evaluating Water Quality for Livestock

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

Water is the single most important nutrient for livestock. Animals, as well as humans, can live for long periods of time without food. Without water, however, death can occur in a matter of days. Unfortunately, both the quality and quantity of the water provided for livestock is often overlooked.
Water is involved either directly or indirectly in virtually every physiological process. Water is a medium for transporting nutrients, waste material, hormones and other chemical messengers, as well as food along the gastrointestinal tract. It also plays an important role in regulating body temperature, acts as a lubricant for skeletal joints and is a component of many basic chemical reactions.
Water quality is determined by analyses of water samples. A bacterial analysis indicates if water contains microorganisms, such as bacteria, which may be harmful. A chemical analysis determines the levels of various minerals present in water.
Evaluating the content of water is relatively straightforward. The major difficulty is establishing levels at which animal health, welfare and productivity may be impaired.
This factsheet outlines recommended levels and potential problems found during water analysis. Table 1 summarizes the water quality guidelines established by the 1987 Canadian Task Force on Water Quality.

An Overview of Organic Pork Production

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

Consumer demand for organic pork is rising. Some pork
producers may wish to capture part of this niche market.
The information on organic pork requirements presented
here is only a general overview. For detailed information,
refer to Canada’s Organic Production Systems — General
Principles and Management Standards or contact a
certifying body that meets your needs for production and
marketing. Organic pork production takes time, hard
work, and facility and management changes to meet all
the requirements. It requires research to determine
whether this type of production system is appropriate for
your operation. It is not for all pork producers.

10 steps to Manage Odor

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

Jay Harmon, with the agricultural and bioengineering department at Iowa State University, offered 10 steps to managing odor during an environmental seminar. 1) Siting Decisions, the distance to nearby dwellings, the size of the pork production facility and the exposure angles – from the facility to a residence – must be taken into account. 2) Manure Handling, injecting manure can reduce odor 50-75% compared to broadcasting. 3) Dietary manipulation, Harmon feels this is one of the easiest options to implement for reducing odors. Cutting crude protein levels and bumping crystalline amino acids can reduce odors 20%, he says. 4) Cover manure storage, whether permeable (straw, cornstalks, geotextiles) or impermeable (high-density polyethylene or HDPE), covers help prevent gases from escaping. 5) Visual barriers and eye
appeal, “Well kept .sites get fewer complaints,” Harmon relates. “It serves as a reflection on the overall management
of the site.” 6) Pit ventilation, the more odorous air comes from the pit, contributing more than half of the total odor during critical periods. 7) Biofilters, drawing exhaust air through a biofilter bed can reduce odor, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and dust. 8) Vegetative environmental buffers, A properly designed vegetative filter helps lift and mix odorous gases. 9) Chimneys, these relatively low-cost design features promote air mixing and reduce the noise of the ventilation system. 10) Other odor deterrents: aeration, barriers, biocurtains, digestion, and oil sprinkling.

PMWS Quebec Situation: Examples and Efforts to Control

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

PMWS has hit the Quebec swine industry hard since 2004. Dr. Camille Moore did a study of the mortality of growing pigs for the first 8 months of 2005 in comparison to 2004. After he completed this study he created a large list of intervention strategies that producers can follow to attempt to control PMWS, in which most of them failed. In order to attempt to control this disease, Drs. MC Germain and Alain Ricard studied vaccinations. Circovac from France is to be given to sows before farrowing and partially depends on colostrums intake of the piglets. Circovac has resulted in variable reduction in mortality in the grow/finish period, but has shown a general improvement. Vaccines against PCV2 are now available as well.

Diversity and evolution of a newly emerged North American Type 1 porcine arterivirus: analysis of isolates collected between 1999 and 2004

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

European-like Type 1 porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) isolates, known
as North American (NA) Type 1 PRRSV, appeared in United States (U.S.) swine herds in 1999. Their
diversity and evolution were studied over a fiveyear period by constructing phylogenetic trees using
nsp2 and ORF5 sequences of 20 NAType 1 isolates, including the only known isolate from Hawaii. All
but two of the isolates possessed the same 51-nt deletion in nsp2, suggesting a clonal origin. Parsimony and distance analysis showed that viruses could be placed into two distinct sub-clades, which were similar for both nsp2 and ORF5. An incongruity between the two trees identified one isolate, 04-41, as the product of recombination. Recombination analysis using SimPlot identified a break point located downstream of the nsp2=3 junction. Results from this study suggest that NAType 1 PRRSVin the U.S. is a well-established and rapidly evolving group. However, the forces driving genetic diversity and separation are complex and remain to be elucidated.

Team tracks antibiotic resistance from swine farms to groundwater

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois report that some genes found in hog waste lagoons are transferred from one bacterial species to another. The researchers found that this migration across species and into new environments sometimes dilutes – and sometimes amplifies – genes conferring antibiotic resistance. Tetracycline is widely used in swine production. It is injected into the animals to treat or prevent disease and is often used as an additive in hog feed to boost the animals’ growth. Its near-continuous use in some hog farms promotes the evolution of tetracycline-resistant strains in the animals’ digestive tracts and manure. The migration of antibiotic resistance from animal feeding operations into groundwater has broad implications for human and ecological health. There are roughly 238,000 animal feeding operations in the U.S., which collectively generate about 500 million tons of manure per year. Groundwater comprises about 40 percent of the public water supply and more than 97 percent of the drinking water used in rural areas. Federal law mandates that animal facilities develop nutrient management plans to protect surface water and groundwater from fecal contamination. During the study, researchers extracted bacterial DNA from lagoons and groundwater wells at two study sites over a period of three years. They screened these samples for seven different tetracycline resistance genes. They found fluctuating levels of every one of the seven genes for which they screened in the lagoons. They also found that these genes were migrating from the lagoons to some of the groundwater wells. It should be noted that many genes that confer antibiotic resistance occur naturally in the environment. Tetracycline is itself a bacterial product, employed by Streptomyces bacteria long before humans discovered its usefulness. In order to determine the origin of the tetracycline resistance genes found in the groundwater, the researchers conducted a genetic analysis of one gene family, tet(W), in samples from the lagoons and from groundwater wells below (downgradient of) and above (upgradient to) the lagoons. They found that the variants of tet(W) genes in the upgradient, environmental control wells were distinct from those of the lagoons, while the wells downgradient of the lagoons contained genes consistent with both the background levels and those in the lagoons. The resistance genes were present at much higher levels in the lagoon than in the contaminated wells. Most were diluted as they moved away from the lagoons in the groundwater. There was one notable exception. A gene known as tet(C) was found at higher levels in some of the groundwater wells at Site A than in the lagoon. Its heightened presence was not consistent with background levels, indicating that something in the environment was amplifying this one gene, which had originated in the lagoon. Perhaps the gene had migrated to a new organism, Yannarell suggests, to find a host that was more suited to conditions in the groundwater. “What we are seeing is that the genes can travel a lot further than the bacteria,” Dr. Mackie says. “It’s a matter of getting the DNA into the right organism. It’s a relay race.”

A Guide to Application of Net Energy in Swine Feed Formulation

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

Feeding pigs is the single most expensive aspect of pork production, accounting for as much as 70% of total costs. Surprisingly, at least 50% of these feed costs can be attributed to providing energy to the animal, thus making energy financially the most important nutrient. Many nutritionists have accepted and are formulating diets on the basis of standardized ileal digestible amino acids and the ideal protein concept. However, for energy, many North American nutritionists continue to formulate diets using digestible or metabolizable energy systems (DE or ME) as opposed to more advanced systems, such as net energy (NE). The purpose of this paper is to identify the benefits of using an NE system, and then to provide an outline for implementing NE into commercial production. The NE system was developed to provide more accurate estimates of the “true” energy in an ingredient (and subsequent diet) that is going to be available for a pig to use for maintenance and product formation (i.e. growth, gestation, lactation, etc.). The main difference between the NE system and the DE and ME systems is that the NE system considered the amount of heat lost during digestion and subsequent deposition of nutrients in protein and adipose tissue. A serious downfall of any energy system, including NE, is that most nutritionists have been and still are using the same energy values for their ingredients as they have been using for years. Of course, this may work for the NE as well, but it is certainly not the best management practice, because with every change in the crude nutrient (protein, fiber, fat, etc.) profile, there also is a change in the energy available from that ingredient. This paper focuses on providing a detailed guideline of how to proceed with implementing an NE system. As with any nutrient system, the ideal first step is to develop some sort of database that will help nutritionists better understand the ingredients and their roles in animal diets. A good place to start is by identifying the energy containing feed ingredients that would typically be used in the grow-finish diets. Grow-finish diets typically contain the least number of ingredients and these diets make up the bulk of the feed that a pig will consume over its lifetime. Furthermore, while the concepts of NE certainly apply to all phases of growth, it is conceivable that each phase of growth would require a different set of mathematical equations as the animal’s ability to extract nutrients, including energy, change as the animal grows. Once the energy containing feed ingredients have been identified, then the next step towards creating a NE database would be to collect each ingredient over a defined period of time. After analyzing the ingredients, the next step would be to incorporate the crude nutrient values into the NE equations so that a prediction of the NE content can be made. Next, the newly calculated NE values should be incorporated into the formulation software, and if not already present, add NE into each grow-finish diet matrix. Finally, once the nutritionist has become comfortable with the NE levels, then the nutritionist should make the switch. The implementation of a NE system is a major step forward from the use of the DE and ME systems. Combined with digestible amino acids and the ideal protein concept, a NE system will allow the nutritionist to formulate diets that provide the animal with the energy and amino acids that it needs for efficient and predictable growth and carcass performance. These systems promote better environmental stewardship for more sustainable pig production by improving nutrient utilization and efficiency. While NE may not be the final advancement to be made in energy evaluation systems (De Lange and Birkett, 2005), it is definitely a start in the right direction.