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:
25 Years of Swine Research
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre by admin on May 5, 2017
This presentation outlines some of the major findings Prairie Swine Center has made through its history.
EVALUATION OF FEEDERS
- ADG and feed disappearance were greater with wet/dry feeders.
- Use of wet/dry feeders will enable pigs to be marketed 5 – 7 days earlier
- ADG increased by 5% or $1.85/hog
ERGONOMIC EVALUATION OF FEEDER DESIGN (Goal was to determine optimal feeder width, depth and lip height for different ages of pigs)
These were the optimal dimensions found
| Area | Depth (cm) | Width (cm) |
| Finishing Only
(60 kg – market) |
30 – 35 | 35 – 40 |
| Grower-Finisher
(25 kg – market) |
25 – 30 | 32 |
| Wean-Finish
(8 kg to market) |
25 -30 | 32 |
PRE-SORTING PIGS BY WEIGHT (Compared a all in/all out (AI/AO) or continuous pig flow management with and without weight sorting)
- ADG and behaviour did not differ between pigs in uniform and variable weight pens
- Rooms emptied 2 days faster in a AI/AO system
- Continuous flow – Uniform and variable weight pens emptied at the same rate
- AI/AO – variable weight pens emptied 6 days (104 vs. 110) faster than uniform pens
EFFECT OF ERGOT ON PERFORMANCE (The impact of ergot-contaminated wheat on performance of weaned pigs)
- Feeding high levels of ergot caused severe reductions in growth performance
- ADG was similar with diets up to .10% ergot
- Impact most pronounced in week 1 and 2
- .10% ergot allows for 10% wheat to be safely included in a nursery diet
IMPACT OF REDUCED NOCTURNAL TEMPERATURE ON PERFORMANCE
- Setpoint temperature reduced 6°C (18 to 12)
- Two trials showed increases in ADG in the RNT rooms increased from 2.1 to 5.2%
Nipple Drinker Height and Flow Rate on Water Wastage
- Low nipple height increased wastage by 10% in growers and 20% in finishers
- Wastage was increased by 7% at higher flow rates (500 vs. 1,000ml/min)
CONCLUSIONS
- On average, PSC research projects return $4.10/hog back to producers
- Approximately 33% of all projects with economic return are considered easy to adopt
- PSC projects generate $4.00 for every $1.00 of industry contribution