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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:
Livestock farmers' awareness, access and benefits of Veterinary Extension Services in Southwestern, Nigeria
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2004 | No Comments
Input = Output, Interpreting the Results
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The growing demands of the pork industry are resulting in the requirement of increasing data management. PigCHAMP is an example of a program that can be used to interpret farm results into data that can be applied to the barn to initiate improvement. Locations, body quality, feed intake, etc. can all be input into this program and analyzed. PigCHAMP can be used to manage processes, monitor performance, diagnose problem areas, and forecast future production. The data integrity report and action lists will help to ensure the quality of information input. Data will also help to minimize production costs, which is important in today’s day and age. It allows us to fine tune an operation to maximize revenue. For example, records can help to reduce non-productive days if we know how many times we HNS gilts before breeding, or what the average amount of regular returns are that occur. If we know there is a problem in these areas, we can fix them. We can also use the farrowing rate report to maximize the amount of crates occupied and reduce fixed cost per pig.
Developments in Global Pig Production
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Global meat consumption will increase as the human population increases. East Asia, North America, and Europe are the major players in pork production. China contains nearly half the worlds pig population, and Japan imports the most. In the US and Canada, pork production has increased within the last decade. The US has changed from an importing to an exporting country due to pork export being 4 times more profitable than grain export. Europe has relatively cheap labour and land prices, so they are expected to grow. Markets are changing from production to market oriented, which means we are going more and more towards a consumer-oriented product. This means we need to be aware of the desires of the consumers both in product and production. Different supply chains should be built for different products. Consumers expect attractive, nutritious, and safe food from environmentally responsible producers. Breeding companies must develop different breeding lines in order to fulfil the requirements of the production chains. Five basic items affecting the supply chain are food safety, quality (through risk analysis and risk management policies), production, cost, and information. Tracking and tracing throughout the whole chain is necessary to state the guarantees. Monitoring of all parts of the chain is essential.
Antibiotic in swine diets: consequences of withdrawal? Part II
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In a previous edition, we discussed why antibiotic resistance and the use of antibiotics in swine diets are considered to be problematic. An obvious question then is to look at what actually happens when antibiotics are withdrawn from swine diets. In this edition we will look at whether this is necessarily a good thing and whether we create any unintended consequences when we do this. The economic benefits of including antibiotics in swine diets are clear; this is the main reason why producers include antibiotics in swine diets. Data collected from over 1,000 experiments in the United States from 1950 to 1985 showed an increase in growth rate and feed efficiency in all phases of growth; with the greatest increase in young pigs. Growth rate increased by 16.4% during the starting phase (7-25 kg ), 10.6% during the growing phase (17-49 kg), and 4.2% during the grow-finish phase (24-89 kg). Likewise, feed efficiency increase by 6.9%, 4.5% and 2.2% during the starting phase, growing phase and growing-finishing phase, respectively. When antibiotics are taken out of swine diets there has been a dramatic decrease in antibiotic resistant microorgansisms isolated from swine. But there has not necessarily been a similar decrease in antibiotic resistant bacteria of the same species and for the same antibiotic in humans. This means that bacteria isolated from hospital setting were still resistant to an antibiotic that was withdrawn from swine diets. The reason for this is not well understood but is probably the result of co-selection of the antibiotic resistant organism by some other mechanism. However, studies done in Germany, The Netherlands, and Italy, have demonstrated a significant decline in antibiotic resistant bacteria in hospital settings after specific antibiotics have been banned in food animals. Here in Manitoba we need to be investigating scientifically based alternatives. In the next issue we will look at what these alternatives are.
The Role of Genetics in Traceability and Quality
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Aside from simple hog improvement, genetics is now being used for DNA traceability. Traceability is important for tracking drug residue, food safety, and marking our pork worldwide as Canadian. The goal of traceability is to trace meat through retail, distribution, processing, slaughter, production, breeding and genetics. DNA tracking could be useful for the slaughter and processing, where tags and tattoos fail to be effective. There is research going on to identify efficient methods of DNA tracing with the goal to make it cost effective and reduce error.
To put this method into practice, replacement gilts will be blood sampled and the sample placed in a bar coded tube. The gilts ID is written next to the bar code and sent to a lab. Although this system is aimed towards quality control and proof of origin, this system can also be used for genetic improvement of the pigs because the carcasses of course will be examined at slaughter.
Boar Nutrition for Optimum Sperm Production
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When evaluating nutritional effects on boars, one should consider libido, quality and quantity of sperm, fertility, welfare, and environmental impacts. Age of boar, genetics, environment, and collection frequency must be considered when evaluating. Sever under nutrition of either protein or energy will affect sperm production. Optimum sperm production occurs when boars are gaining weight, but too much weight gain could compromise the longevity of the boar in the breeding herd. The feed intake level and desired rate of gain in the boar will be dependent on the turnover rate for genetic progress within a stud. Most diets are over formulated and boars are over-fed. Cost per dose of semen depends on several factors, including how many inactive or untrained boars are in the stud, how many rejected collections occur each week, cost of the diets, disease, and other environmental factors. All of these factors can impact the number of doses per week, which will change the cost of nutrition in the end. Basics need to be taken care of when formulating diets for boars. Nutrients should not be over-supplied beyond maintenance and moderate growth (for the achievement of an improvement of sperm production or quality). Other feed additives should be evaluated on either changes in output or changes in fertility to ensure a financial payback. New research will increase the understanding of the impacts that physical factors have on the diet and the implications on reproductive performance. Predicting the true dietary requirements for boars will become more specific and accurate, as new techniques are developed to assess semen, which have a greater correlation to fertility.
Well-Being of Early Weaned Piglets During Transport: Assessment of Seasonal Effects on Performance and Behavior
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The swine industry has progressively adopted a segregated early weaning management system, necessitating the transport of piglets at 14-21 days of age. Transportation can be a severe stressor especially for young piglets, which show weight loss due to dehydration and food withdrawal. The responses and tolerances of SEW piglets to transport are not well understood. Most previous transport work focused on slaughter hogs. Weaning itself, especially at an early age, affects the piglets performance as they are slow to develop normal feeding patterns and consequently have a compromised feed intake. When weaning coincides with transport, the stressors are additive, increasing the detrimental effects on post-weaning performance. Transport induces fatigue, dehydration and altered behavior patterns in all seasons and can add to the stress of weaning. Each season affects the piglets in different ways and to different degrees. The cold temperatures during winter transport changed piglet behavior and physiology, encouraging lower levels of activity and decreased ear and rectal temperature. The lower piglet density changes were most apparent after 12 hours of transport were exacerbated. Higher levels of resting, indicative of fatigue, were noted for 3 days post-transport. Average daily gain (post recovery) was lowest in winter and 76 % of “poor doers” (less than weaning weight after 7 days) were observed in the winter. Piglets transported in the summer were also observed to rest more frequently into day 2 post transport, indicting that hot summer transport also induces fatigue. Fall transport, possibly because of the large range in temperature produced the greatest changes in behaviors indicative of stress. Sitting was more frequently observed in the fall and higher drinking frequencies were extended into day 2 indicating that the piglets were not able to meet their water consumption needs on day 1, unlike piglets observed in other seasons. Transported piglets, irrespective of duration of transport and season showed some behaviours associated with transport stress including increased resting, sitting and drinking.