Pork Industry has Appetite for Feed Options
The greatest cost of pig production is feed, which is up to 70% of the total expenses. Prices for feed ingredients are continuing to rise so alternative feed sources or co-products are being investigated to help lower these costs. Pigs can derive energy from products...
Can Micro-Nutrients make a Macro Difference for Piglets?
As litter size increases, birth weight and litter weight are decreasing and the piglets may not be receiving proper nutrition. Piglets are naturally dependent nutritionally on their mother until 135 days, which equals the whole post-weaning period. Micronutrients were screened in the neonatal period to...
Feed Research Has Finger on the Pulses
Pulse crops like lentils, field peas and faba beans may be a cheaper option for swine feed. These ingredients are highly available in Canada and though often used for human consumption, when they are downgraded they could be a cheap diet replacement for pigs, but...
Piglet Nutrition Research Feeds Hunger for Knowledge
Micronutrients are needed in small quantities and are essential elements. Three that are transferred from the sow to the piglet after birth are copper, vitamin A and vitamin D. Naturally these are obtained by soil, plants and UV light but these sources are not present...
Grasping at Straw to Boost Sow Milk Yield
Increasing sow milk yield is an important area of research since it helps with piglet growth. Sows are often aggressive due to restricted feeding so increasing satiety was investigated to see if performance was improved. Processing of straw improved the energy digestibility, with stronger effects...
Fed Up With High Feed Costs? Chew On This
Feed costs are one of the main expenses in swine production, so a lot of research has been done to help reduce this constant strain on producers. Feeding low, constant net energy diets is a cheaper alternative to feeding higher net energy levels in grow...
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...
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...
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...
Boar Taint Research in Good Taste
Boar taint is a problem for the pork industry due to its impact on meat quality. Pork has an unpleasant odour and a gamey taste when from an uncastrated male due to sex pheromones produced, which is why early castration is a common occurrence in...