Brachyspira 2.0: Novel Disease Needs Novel Approach
A novel species of Brachyspira was discovered that causes severe illness in pigs. Testing is being completed on different strains and how to treat them as some may be resistant to certain antibiotics. This testing has many benefits like the correct dosage and drug being known,...
Got Milk? Mammary Research Yielding Results
The sow is not producing enough milk to feed the increasing litter sizes produced, so piglet growth is being limited. Improving the sow's milk yield can help maximize piglet growth. This may be accomplished through improving mammary development. The main periods of development are from...
Infrared Camera Could Keep Producers in the Black
A thermographic camera uses infrared radiation to form an image and may be able to detect diseased animals by identifying those who are losing heat. A single camera can be aimed at a pen and all animals in view would be in the image. This...
Better Disease Detection is Nothing to Sneeze At
Pig diseases are costly, reduce performance, lower production and can lead to losses. Serologic testing the antibodies that the animals produce when fighting off an infection can detect which diseases are present. Currently, the serologic test used can only detect one agents' antibodies at a...
Precision Feeding Can Nourish Your Bottom Line
Fine tuning nutrients in diets is an important part of keeping diet costs as low as possible while having optimal performance with low phosphorus and nitrogen excretion. Precision feeding allows for not only fine tuning of the diets themselves but also for individual diets. Using...
Multiple Choices: Group Housing a Test for Researchers
Transitioning to group sow housing involves major renovations and changes to daily management. One of the best resources on the transition is the producers who have already switched over. An important consideration to make is which feeding system to use. Many of the early adopters...
Good Things Come in 3D for Pork Researchers
3D vision systems can be used to rapidly and objectively assess hog carcass quality. The current evaluation system focuses on fat and lean carcasses, but the amount of each is not of too much importance, it's the location of each that really matter. The belly...
Enhanced DDGS Aims to Perk Up the Pigs
Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) is a co-product of ethanol production from cereal grains and can reduce feed costs while providing amino acids and energy to pigs. Feed costs are a large portion of the production costs for swine with energy and protein being...
Pigs in Space
Space allowance can impact many areas of pork production including social interaction, behaviour, stress and productivity. Often weaner pigs are given less space allowance due to their size but this may not be adequate. Crowding occurs near the end of the nursery phase as the...
On Farm Automation Takes Off
Collecting data is an important part of farming with trends moving towards precision farming, though it can be a time consuming process so new ways of doing this task are being looked into. Automation including 3D vision technology and individual water recording systems have a...