SEARCH
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:
Within-herd Use of Boar Semen at 5 º C, with a Note on Electronic Monitoring of Oestrus
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2002 | No Comments
A system was designed to allow a small swine farm in a nothern latitude to use its own boars for artificial insemination (AI) conveniently. Semen was collected twice weekly for 3 day use (days 0,1 and 2), extended in an egg yolk extender and stored at 5ºC. Farm personnel were trained to manage the entrie AI programme. For simplicity all semen collected was used for insemination. In the first test 47 gilts and 15 sows were inseminated with semen from four boars. One boar was subfertile with a farrowing rate of 36%. The averages for the other boars ranged from 71 to 100%. Then semen was collected from seven boars and all was used to inseminate 70 gilts and 55 sows with 3 x 10 9 or more per litter. Litter size for sows was 1.5 piglets larger than for gilts. There was no difference in farrowing rate when more than 3 x 10 9 sperm were inseminated. The feasibility of initiating a complete AI programme within a small herd using herd boars was established. However, selection of the boars, use of only high quality semen, and experience with detecting oestrus was required to increase the farrowing rate. The use of various agents to protect sperm against cold shock below 15ºC is worthy of further investigation. a new type of electronic probe, which measure the conductivity of cervical mucus, could be helpful if a boar is not available for conventional detection of oestrus
Using surface water in nursery pig production
Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments
Water is an important resource in swine production whose quality can significantly impact pig performance and, therefore, profitability of a swine operation. A growing number of pigs are being raised in areas where good quality ground water is unavailable, and therefore surface (dugout) water must be used. This report highlights potential challenges of using of surface water in nursery pig production and some of the procedures available for improving water quality. A summary of the findings of a recent study comparing ground water with surface water and different treatment methods, and the main indicators of water quality is presented. The findings support the use of surface water for commercial nursery pig production and suggest that investing in costly water treatment procedures may not always be justified. Swine producers should first ensure that water quality, and not other factors (e.g. barn environment), is indeed the problem. The following is a summary of the main indicators of water quality and a brief discussion of the available water treatment methods. Water pH ranging from 6.5 to 8.5 is considered acceptable to pigs. A low pH may reduce the effectiveness of medication delivered via water. Water hardness is a measure of the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium salts and is expressed as calcium carbonate. Soft water has no effect on pig performance. However, with hard water the excess calcium might interfere with phosphorous utilization. Water containing soluble salts with less than 1000 ppm is considered safe to pigs. High levels might cause water refusal or mild temporary diarrhea. Contamination of groundwater with nitrates and nitrites mainly occurs through leaching from the soil or through surface water runoff that has been exposed to material with high nitrogen levels. Nitrates are toxic to pigs if water levels exceed 1500 ppm. Nitrites are more toxic and levels should not exceed 10 ppm in water for pigs. Symptoms of nitrate poisoning include: high respiration rate, incidence of diarrhea, reduced feed intake, and increased abortions among pregnant sows. Bacterial contamination of water is viewed as a serious problem relative to the quality of water for both human and livestock use. The level of coliforms (a group of disease-causing bacteria) indicates bacterial contamination of water. A count 1of 5000 total coliforms per 100 milliliters is the maximum allowed in water for pigs, but the type of bacteria present may be more important. Water quality should be checked at least once a year, with a measurement of bacterial (coliform) contamination always included. It is important to note, however, that in some cases measured indicators of water quality do not always mean poor pig performance. Therefore, any decision to install expensive water purification systems can only be justified if pig performance is significantly reduced. Some of the methods available for water treatment include chlorination, coagulation, filtration, and pH adjustment. Of these, chlorination is the most widely utilized within the industry and works best in water with low pH and low levels of contaminants. Installing a water softener offers a simple means to reduce the hardness of the water. Other techniques like ion exchange have limited application in commercial pork production due to cost.
Gilt Development, Management, and Parity Control
Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments
A good gilt development program is essential for individual and total reproductive performance. A good quarantine program prevents the introduction of foreign diseases and manure feedback will help to synchronize health status between gilt and herd. Proper estrus detection should be implemented to reduce the time to puberty, therefore reducing non-productive days. Housing (pen and flooring), nutrition (to ensure quality feet and legs and body condition), and boar exposure (the most important aspect) should be properly managed in order to minimize the days until puberty for gilts. Boars should not be housed close to the gilts pens to avoid habituation and loss of stimulus response. They should be heat checked with a boar for 20 minutes per day. PG600 can be used to bring gilts into heat quicker.
Gilts tend to mature slower in higher temperatures, such as summer time. 8 to 10 hours of light are needed to bring about puberty in an efficient manner. Good air quality with minimal ammonia is also very beneficial. First breeding should be delayed until second or third (about 210 days of age and 125 kg) estrus to allow the maturation of the reproductive tract.
Sow replacement rate must be monitored and controlled. For example, if reproduction drops after an average of 7 parities, it is not beneficial for the farm to keep sows past the 7th parity. Control of replacement rates will allow individual farms to maximize the population of 2nd to 5th parity sows. If the herd manager can work to this plan and can concentrate their energy on gilt development and selective culling, they will have the opportunity to take control of herd structure rather than allowing the herd to dictate the pace.
Financial Evaluation of Disease Eradication
Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments
Disease eradication is important, but it is quite costly and there is always the risk that it will not work. The option to eradicate needs to be looked at from a business point of view as well. A system evaluation needs to precede eradication, which includes considering your barns final product, performance data, facility design, cost of production, disease knowledge, disease cost, survivability of the disease, source of animals and whether they are negative for the disease, biosecurity assessment and deciding whether the protocol is worth it. Factors that influence the cost of an eradication program includes medication, diagnostic testing, inventory modification, flow disruption (revenue losses due to pig flow disruption), rent of extra facility, personnel (extra hired help), and down time of the facility. Disease eradication can improve sow performance (via eradication of diseases such as PRRS), grower performance, and in the end, the profitability. Other factors to consider in an eradication program include market price, facility cost and interest rate. Techniques for disease eradication include medication elimination (chemical therapeutic agent). This method has been used for Swine Dysentery and Mange, and it is less effective for other diseases. The only economic aspect to consider is medication cost and labour cost. Elimination can also be done by vaccination/exposure and herd closure. This entails vaccinating or exposing the disease to the entire herd population. Temporarily closing the herd to new breeding stock is an important step. This process works mainly for TGE, and to a lesser extent, PRRS and PRV. The economic cost of this method is essentially the disruption in production and pig flow. Elimination by test and removal uses one or a combination of diagnostic tests to remove positive animals from the herd. This method has been successful for Pseudorabies in sow herds. The economic costs include diagnostics, medication, and a higher replacement rate. The medicated early weaning technique uses a combination of medication, vaccination, early weaning, and removal of the weaned animal to another site. This works for horizontally or vertically transmitted diseases. The main costs include rental of extra facilities, medication, and testing. Partial depopulation is the movement of animals out of the nursery and/or finisher to create a flow disruption. This technique can work on any pathogen, and the costs include the downtime of the facilities, throughput reduction, and opportunity losses. The source of animals must be free of the targeted disease. Depopulation/repopulation entails culling the entire breeding herd, cleaning the entire facility, and then repopulating after a time. This works well with most pathogens, but is the most costly technique due to replacement cost and cost of facility downtime. This technique works well for multi-site production.
Variable Growth Impacts on Optimal Market Timing in All-Out Production Systems
Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments
This paper addresses the economic impacts of growth variability on market timing decisions in
an all-in, all-out production system. Marketing decisions based on the pen average are
determined to be different than those based on the entire distribution of output levels. A case
study data set of 350 swine provides verification of our theoretical construct.
The Science of Meat Quality
Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments
Raising pigs in optimal conditions is important to produce the best meat quality. However, producers have to be aware that their efforts will get better results if they are conscious that good care of piglets starts at the foetal level. During foetal growth muscle fibres develop and the total number of fibres is determined. Fibres can be divided into three general categories: red, white and intermediate. A darker muscle has a larger amount of red fibres, while a lighter coloured muscle has more white fibres. It is the number of muscular fibres, rather than their size, that is the primary influence on the growth of the animal. The role of red fibres is more important at birth, but during development and at slaughter weight, white fibres become more important. After slaughter, the pH level of muscle decreases as a result of anaerobic degradation of glycogen in lactic acid. This metabolic activity is more important in white muscles and has a major impact on meat quality. Other factors influencing the level of acidification of the post-mortem muscle are exercise and stresses from pre-slaughter handling and transportation. The rate and extent of the drop in pH levels (becoming more acidic) has an impact on the quality of fresh meat, its shelf life and ability for further processing. A higher proportion of white fibres will reduce the pH. Good proteins make good processed meat – white fibre myosin (myosins are molecular motor proteins) offers superior functional properties to that of red fibre myosin subject to post-mortem metabolic activities that don’t interfere with protein integrity. In order to maintain the quality of protein, pre-slaughter management is essential but other factors are also important, including genetic selection, environment, and perhaps feeding of the gestating sow. Molecular biology also provides some interesting possibilities. There are studies currently being conducted to identify new genetic markers that influence growth and meat yield. In the near future, other research projects will likely concentrate on production of meat with qualities that meet specific requirements such as functional or nutraceutical foods. Scientists have also been able to extend the shelf life of fresh meat by better controlling bacteria. Their new objective is to improve the meat’s resistance to its own degradation by oxidation.
Next Generation AI – New Developments to Maximize Efficiency
Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments
The number of doses per boar ejaculate is important for determining the efficiency of artificial insemination. Per year, an average boar can service 600 to 750 sows. In order to increase the sperm output per ejaculate, researchers have been experimenting with fatty acids and vitamin E, with fairly good success. It has shown to give 100 more piglets per 100 sows tested. Methods are being discovered to reduce the number of sperm per dose from 2.5 – 3.0 billion down to 20 million! This is done by deep intra-uterine insemination, where insemination occurs past the cervix and into the uterus. Treatment with PGF2 can increase the uterine contractions/sperm uptake, which could potentially result in less sperm required per dose. Pinpoint time of ovulation is also being studied in order to enable a single, successful insemination. In order to reduce semen wastage, work is being done to enhance extender to allow a longer shelf life and tolerability to lower temperatures, and in turn research is being conducted to identify successful methods of freezing semen. If producers were able to sex the sperm it would help the breeding pyramid of the operation.
Salmonella Control in Feeder Barns
Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments
Salmonella is a bacterium that can infect humans as well as livestock. One such example of a Salmonella infection resulted in a 3.9% mortality in a 2000 head finisher herd. The pigs were water treated with Neomycin and injected with Borgal. After the herd finished out, a new bunch was brought in. This group developed the same characteristic yellow diarrhoea. Mortality was contained at 1.3%. After that batch the barn was washed more thoroughly a new batch was brought in. These developed Salmonellosis as well but to a much lesser extent. This carried on for 2 more batches of pigs. The problem subsided when an internal biosecurity system was created, routine chlorination of water lines began, more thorough cleaning, and better rodent control. No more clinical infections were seen after that. The question remained: where did the infection come from? Testing various sources concluded that the purchased feeder pigs, trucks, and feed were unlikely candidates while water was a possible candidate. Rodents were the likely cause of survival of the Salmonella between batches. Aerosol spread was the likely cause of the spread between rooms (the Salmonella would have gotten around in the re-circulation ducts).