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Industry Partners
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:
The influences of vertical integration and scale of production on profitability of pig production
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2005 | No Comments
Challenges & Opportunities in a Highly Productive Herd
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The goal of 30 pigs weaned/sow/year is a standard goal in the industry. Genetics, nutrition, and a good working staff are all essential to this target. Breeding should occur at the peak of ovulation to obtain 13.5 to 14 total born and farrowing rates should be targeted to exceed 90%. Good quality semen is a must-have, and it should be stored at 17°C and re-suspended twice a day. Correct environmental attributes must be in place to minimize sow stress, provide extra heat for piglets to lower pre-weaning mortality, and stimulate lactation for the sow. Replacement gilts should be more productive and only brought in to replace sows of less productivity. Good colostrum, low pre-weaning mortality, and low stillborns are all the result of good farrowing supervision. Cross fostering of piglets will allow them to be weaned in an even group size, lower pre-weaning mortality, and brings them up to roughly the same weight. Lactation feeding of the sow should ensure maximum piglet growth and large litters for the next breeding. Reduced levels of feeding for the first 7 to 10 days stimulates the appetite for the remainder of lactation. Good record keeping, reliable products, teamwork, and training are all essential for reaching targets.
TSAA Requirements for Nursery and Growing Pigs
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The use of synthetic amino acids in swine nursery and growing diets is a common practice implemented throughout the world. The majority of the research to date has focused on the use of synthetic lysine. With the present knowledge of lysine requirements, it is becoming important to know the requirements for the next limiting amino acid (methionine and cystine, the two sulphur amino acids). Past research on the sulphur amino acid requirements indicates that optimum performance was between 8.7 and 11.9 mg/g of average daily gain. Recent research has concluded that gain and feed efficiency are maximized with a Synthetic Amino Acid: Lysine ratio between 60 and 63%.
Using canola and dry pea in the diet of growing pigs: influence on zootechnical performances and production costs
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In Québec, corn and soybean meal are major ingredients of the pigs’ diet. However, dry pea and canola are two other interesting feeds. The growing performance and carcass and fat quality of pigs fed with or without supplements of canola seeds or dry pea, which replaced 60 kg/t or 250 kg/t, respectively, of a conventional diet of corn, soybean meal and fat have been compared. Also, the impact of these ingredients on feeding costs has been evaluated. Adding either canola seeds or dry peas did not change the zootechnical performances of the pigs. Whatever the diet, the results were similar for average daily gain, feed consumption and conversion, carcass composition (fat and muscle thickness, lipidic and proteic mass), slaughter data (lean meat yield, dressing percentage and hog value index) and water consumption. All pigs exhibited a back fat with an adequate consistency (>0,60) but a consistency index near the lower acceptable French standard. Between 26 and 109 kg of live weight, pigs fed a supplement of dry peas showed a 4,5% better feed conversion than with a supplement of canola seeds. In July 2004, adding canola seeds or dry peas allowed savings of 0,47$ and 2,22$ per head, respectively, due to the high price of soybean meal (494$/t). However, when the latter dropped to 250$/t in October 2004, these two ingredients increased the feeding cost. Grinding canola seeds requires a grinder in good condition, equipped with a small-meshed screen. One must also check the oil availability and energy value of canola seeds.
Intestinal macromolecular transmission in newborn pigs: Implications for management of neonatal pig survival and health
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The effect on intestinal macromolecular absorption capacity and immunoglobulin G (IgG) transfer of feeding sow colostrum at different intervals and in different quantities to newborn pigs was studied. It was concluded that feeding 30 ml colostrum/kg BW 4 times over the first 24 h provided the pig with plasma IgG levels comparable to that of their suckling littermates.
Creating Your Own IDEA Factory
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Creativity is primarily an individual pursuit. Innovative thinking requires the ability to generate, develop, judge, communicate, and translate new ideas. Thinking outside of the box is a quality trait because it deviates from the common thought. It requires being open to new ways of doing things and the willingness to explore them. Thinking outside of the box can often bring in new and useful ideas. Ed Bernacki offers some steps to improve the ideas of your business.
Next Generation Diet Formulation: True Metabolic Availability of Amino Acids in Diets for Pigs
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Not all of the dietary amino acid that is included in standardized ileal digestibility is metabolically available for protein synthesis. A rapid method was developed to determine metabolic amino acid availability in feedstuffs for protein synthesis. Using the indicator amino acid oxidation technique, a change in phenylalanine oxidation, which is inversely proportional to protein synthesis, was used to measure the metabolic availability of lysine in feedstuffs compared to that of free lysine, which is fully available. Data regarding several methodological considerations were addressed before this technique was validated, including: adaptation time between test diets, repeatability of measurements, predictability of response to lysine intake, dietary phenylalanine availability and lysine intake sensitivities. In addition, an oral dosing regimen was developed to simplify the facilities required and lower costs further. This method is suitable for the determination of the metabolic availability of amino acids for protein synthesis in a given feedstuff within 2 to 3 weeks. This method could also be adapted to predict the availability of other economically important amino acids in feedstuffs. This new approach is an improvement over the chemical methods, which are only available for lysine.