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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:
Evaluation of Commercial Odor Control Agents for Suppressing Escherichia coli in Swine Manure Slurry
Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 2002 | No Comments
Effects of Dietary Ingredients on Manure Characteristics and Odorous Emissions from Swine
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Two feeding studies were conducted to examine the impact of dietary inclusion of specific feed ingredients on manure characteristics and manure odor. In one study, 72 finishing pigs were used to evaluate the effect fo distillers dried grains with soluables on pig performance, manure characteristics and odorous emissions. TjheeThree diets containing 0, 5, and 10% DDGS were fed during four, 6-week periods. Week 1 served as a dietary adjustment period. Animals wre housed in two feeding rooms with one treatment per room. A new group of animals was used nfor each feeding period. Diets were replicated four times. Rooms were equipped with four individual shallow manure storage pits that were cleaned once weekly. On day 4 and 7 of each week, manure pit samples, for chemical nalysis, and air samples for olfactometry analysis, were collected from each room. Odor dilution threshold was greater on day7 than day 4 of manure storage across all treatments. No treatment differences in manure compostion were noted. In the second study, weaned pigs were fed isonnitrogenous diets containing 0, 1.5 or 3% bloodmeal. Pigs were housed by diet in one or four individual feeding rooms. A new group of pigs was used for each of the two, 4-week feeding periods. During period 1, the 3% bloodmeal diet was fed in two of the four rooms; the 0% bloodmeal diet was fed in two rooms during period 2. Manure samples, for chemical analysis, and air samples for olfactometry analysis were collected 2 days per week during week 2 through 4. No significant treatment differences were observed for odor dillution threshold. Longer manure storage time, 6 days versus 4 days, resulted in largeer odor dilution ratio. Manure composition was unaltered by storage time. Results suggest that odor intensifies during storage.
Hydrological Properties of a Clay Loam Soil after Long-term Cattle Manure Application
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Public Health Concerns for Neighbors of Large-Scale Swine Production Operations
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Nutrient Model for Setting Phosphorous Application Limits – year 2 – Validation
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With the increase in the livestock industry in Manitoba, there is more manure that must be managed in an environmentally acceptable manner. Nutrient content of the manure and its addition to land is one of the aspects that needs to be managed. For nitrogen (N), the issue is more or less resolved by ensuring the N addition matches the crop requirements, so that on average there is little or no residual environmentally important (soluble) N. For phosphorus (P), the issue is not as simple because crops cannot in a single season remove all the environmentally important P. The reason is that the P sorbs strongly to soil particles, and the environmental importance comes to a large extent from erosion. The Nutrient Loading Model (NLM) was designed to be a tool that a regulator could use to set P loading limits (P fertilization or manure-loading limits) based on the effect of P on stream water quality. Phase 1 of the project (1999-2000) developed the model. Phase 2, described here, considered improvements to the model, benchmarked the model against other models available for this purpose, and validated the model. The benchmarking process involved comparison of the capabilities of 7 models to that of the NLM. These models varied from complex research-level models with far too many parameters for practical application, to simple look up tables in use now for regulatory purpose. In general, these other models were not readily useable with available data and did not have attributes that were important to add to the NLM. The validation of the NLM was the major undertaking. It was not possible to conduct experiments or measurements within this project, so the emphasis was to identify existing data and programs in Manitoba that met the requirements. There are quite a few programs in Manitoba related to stream quality. The drawback is that they are conducted by a number of agencies with differing mandates and differing abilities to consistently measure the important parameters. Four case studies were selected. These included reaches of the Whitemouth River, Joubert Creek, the Seine River and the west watershed of the South Tobacco Creek. The river reaches were about 10 km long, so there were many crops and landscape features included. The reaches were chosen to be predominantly through crop land, but there were inevitably other sources of P to the river, such as leaching from overhanging vegetation. In all cases, drawing the required information from the available data required assumptions and some interpolation. Also, no calibration for each river reach was carried out, this created an unbiased test. For better results, the NLM could be calibrated before application and there is data to do this for the Whitemouth River, Joubert Creek as well as the South Tobacco Creek watersheds. Given these uncertainties, the results of the NLM for the rainfall events considered agreed reasonably well with the validation data. There are many ways the NLM could be implemented in a management, guidelines or regulatory role. It was envisioned to be a tool for a regulator, where an upper limit application rate of P to soils is determined based on the concentration of P in the receiving water. This application probably needs to be quite generic with respect to watershed characteristics. For example, it would not be fair to impose guidelines on a farmer in the lower regions of the watershed that are different from those for a farmer in the upper regions. Several alternative application modes are suggested, one of which is the concept of a water parcel. This water parcel is the water contributed by a unit of land to the total drainage effluent of a watershed, and it contains the P eroded (or leached) from that unit of land. This concept is for an annual average water and P loss, on the assumption that the appropriate integration time is a year. The P in this parcel of water may be subject to some fluvial processes such as sedimentation, but ultimately it is this P concentration that may, for example, impact the North Basin of Lake Winnipeg. It is proposed that the NLM is ready now for such an application.
New Hulless Barley Promises to Reuce Pollution from Manure
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New lines of hulles barley being developed by the University of Saskatchewan Crop Development Centre promise to help reduce the potential pollution from hog manure while increasing the value of the crop. The goal is to develop a two row hulless barley variety for use as feed that is low in phytic acid and is adapted to Western Canada. The work invloves crossing CDC McWire hulless barley with low phytic acid varities developed by USDA scientists in Idaho based on Harrington. Crop Development Centre Barley and Oat breeder Dr. Brian Rossnegel says the new hulless variety will primarily target swine producers.
Effects of Low Phytic Acid Corn, Low Phytic Acid Soybean Meal and Phytase on Nutrient Excretion and Nutrient Digestibility in Pigs
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About 85% of the phosphorus (P) in a normal corn-soybean meal diet fed to swine is not utilized because it is bound as phytate phosphate and cannot be digested by the swine. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of feeding low phytic acid (LPA corn, LPA soybean meal and the Phytase enzyme on P digestibility and excretion with grower pigs.
This study suggests that the feeding of any combination of LPA corn, LPA soybean meal, and phytase can significantly improve P digestibility while dramatically decreasing P excretion. In addition, the feeding of LPA corn can reduce fecal K excretion while improving overall K digestibility. The modifications of commercial swine diets with LPA corn, LPA soybean meal and/or phytase can significantly improve P utilization and thus reduce the potential negative impacts of swine production on the environment.