Are Sows Motivated for Movement?
The Canadian Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs requires that as of July 1, 2024, all mated gilts and sows must be housed in groups, or individual pens. Mated gilts and sows may also be housed in existing stall barns if...
by
Ken Engele
Feeder Design Considerations
The minimum width of a feeding space is based on the shoulder width of the largest pig in the pen, plus 10 % to accommodate variation in body shape. The formula used to calculate the width of a feeding space is: Minimum feeder space width = maximum shoulder...
by
Ken Engele
Feeding Mycotoxin Contaminated Grain
Mycotoxins are chemicals (secondary metabolites) produced by moulds or fungi infecting grains. There are over 400 known mycotoxins; however only a small number of these probably affect pig performance on a regular basis. It is important to note that the presence of the mould or fungi does not guarantee...
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Ken Engele
Reducing Water Consumption in Swine Barns
Demonstrating Management Practices that Enhance the Sustainability of Pork Production Activity 1.3 – Reducing Water Consumption in Swine Barns The following publications will assist producers in making effective decisions to optimize water usage within their production units. ...
by
Ken Engele
Auditing On-Farm Best Management Practices
ACTIVITY 3. Auditing On-Farm Best Management Practices Objective: Measure the pork industry’s adoption of best management practices that reduce cost of production, enhance sustainability and reduce labour commitments. ...
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Ken Engele
Improving Biosecurity in Swine Transport
While on farm biosecurity measures are increasingly stringent, a major gap that can allow for transmission of disease is biosecurity in transport. As such, new cleaning procedures for trailers must be developed to make sanitizing trailers easy and effective. Problems associated with cleaning trailers include...
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Ken Engele
Performance Response of Piglets to Acid-Preserved, High-Moisture Wheat
One objective of this trial was to determine the effectiveness of feeding acid-preserved, high moisture wheat as an alternative to directly supplementing acid to the wheat diet of weanling pigs. Acidification of wheat with propionic acid resulted in a significant improvement in feed efficiency (G:F)...
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Ken Engele
Transitioning to Loose Sow Housing
One producer's (John Van Engelen, Ontario) lessons in making the transition to group sow housing. As presented to a Group Sow Housing Seminar in the fall of 2017. https://youtu.be/WOzUdmEDsLs ...
by
Ken Engele
Understanding the Interaction between Nutrition and Pig Health
With new legislation eliminating the use of in-feed antibiotics for growth promotion in Canada and increasing consumer pressure to reduce antibiotic use in animal agriculture, it is critical that we develop alternatives to antibiotic use in order to maintain animal performance and health during immune...
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Ken Engele
Mitigating Barn Deterioration
When we look across the Canadian pork industry it becomes apparent that due to the age of most facilities a large percentage will need to be replaced or renovated over the next few years – as most buildings average between 20-30 years old. The majority...
by
Ken Engele