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:
Using creep feeding as a strategy to improve post weaning feed intake and piglet growth
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre, Press Releases by admin on September 5, 2017 | No Comments
Overall, the provision of creep feed for 5 days prior to weaning had no effect on weaning weights or growth rate from day 21 to weaning, however, modest effects were observed on piglet growth rate in the nursery. Interestingly, within the creep treatment, it was the lighter piglets which took advantage of the creep feed, and this subset of piglets showed an improved growth rate. Therefore, the provision of creep feed in the farrowing room provides benefits to piglets that show evidence of consumption and it is the lighter-weight piglets which benefit most from the provision of creep feed, and thus within litter variability may be reduced.
What do we know about feeding Peas, Lentils and Flax?
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on July 31, 2017 | No Comments
1st message
• Peas have a high NE value
• Pea proteins
– Have the highest lysine content of any plant ingredient used in swine nutrition
– Are deficient In S-containing amino acids and in Tryptophan
• Peas can represent up to
– 30% of the diet of growing pigs
– 40% of the diet of finishing pigs
2nd Message
• Sows can be fed with peas as long as other fibre sources are used in the diet
• Grinding markedly improves the nutritional value of peas in pigs
• Other treatments can also improve the nutritional value but at a lower rate
3rd message
• Lentils have an energy value at least 5% lower than that of peas
• The proteins are lower in essential amino acids than peas and have a lower digestibility
• Freezing before harvest decreases protein digestibility
4th message
• Flaxseed has the highest level of omega-3 fatty acids in the plant kingdom
• The intake of flaxseed Increases the level of polyinsaturated fat In the pig carcasses
• The proteins of flaxseed are deficient in lysine but high in tryptophan
• Flaxseed and flaxseed meal can represent up to 10% of the diet of growing pigs
Twelve Born Alive: Its not all hugs and kisses
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on | No Comments
This presentation outlines several challenges associated with the 30 piglets per sow per year goal that most producers set. Sow body condition score is critical for maintaining proper lactation levels for a reduced pre weaning mortality. The studies discussed in this presentation focus on the issue of lactation nutrition, body condition, long term productivity and management solutions for optimizing on farm performance.
Dehulled Canola Meal for Growing-Finishing Pigs – monograph
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on July 14, 2017 | No Comments
The major restriction to expanded use of canola meal in swine diets is its low level of energy digestibility. There are many approaches that one might take to address this problem, but in this series of experiments, mechanical dehulling was considered as one possible alternative. Therefore, two experiments were conducted to evaluate the acceptability of dehulled canota meal to swine and to detennine the perfonnance of growing and finishing pigs using this product to replace at least half of the soybean meal in their diet. The acceptabilit)’ study revealed some problems with the product, as the pigs reduced feed intake in approximate proportionate to the quantity of dehulled canota meal in the diet. In the perfonnance study, the pigs perfonned very well on the diets containing dehulled canota meal, suggesting that the product can be used successfully in swine diets. Dehulled canota meal has considerable promise in the pig industry, if the dehulling process is economical and can produce a uniform product. Because there appears to be a tendency to concentrate certain anti-nutritional factors in the low fibre fraction, care must be taken to ensure that this is minimised
How do I Maximize my Returns by Incorporating Field Peas and Pulses into my Diets ?
Posted in: Economics, Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on July 13, 2017 | No Comments
The conclusions from the studies discussed in this presentation found that:
- Pulses are a good protein complement for wheat and barley, not for com
- The net energy value or the pulses is
• lower than that of wheat
• higher than that of soybean meal - The level of nntinutritional factors in pulses is genernlly too low to affect significnntly the perfonnnnces of the pig
- The availability of the amino acids of pulses for the pig might be lower than that predicted by their digestibility
- Pulses can account for 30 to 40 % of the diet of growing pig as long as the diets ore correctly balanced, namely in Tryptophan and methionine
How do I Maximize my returns by incorporating field pease and pulses into my diets
Dietary Phosphorus Economic and Performance Implications
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on July 12, 2017 | No Comments
This presentation outlines how to better incorporate phosphorous into swine diets and improve digestibility with the use of phytase.
One solution offered is Low-phytate grains
– Low-phytate barley is being developed at Saskatoon, Brandon and Lacombe
– Certified seed may be commercially available by 2008
– Low-phytate peas are being developed at Saskatoon, corn in the US
-Low phytate barley has also been developed
Another Look at the Nursery: Financial Considerations
Posted in: Economics, Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre, Production by admin on July 10, 2017 | No Comments
Farms differ in many ways, but the author suspects that the goals of the nursery are common throughout all commercial units and discusses how best to improve upon each goal:
• Maximize nursery exist weights, as a solid platform for the move to the grow out barn
• Minimize mortality
• Minimize the need for medical treatment
• Minimize feed costs, calculated as feed cost per kg gain and feed cost per pig
• Maximize uniformity
Sometimes, financial value can be assigned to a feeder pig leaving a nursery, even if it is not sold. A model of economic value for the feeder pig, within the context of the full production system, would be highly beneficial, because profits can clearly be made or lost within the nursery.
Exploring Opportunities in Using Alternative Feedstuffs
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments
The current market prices of pigs and protein sources have forced the pork industry to explore ways to reduce feed costs while maintaining swine performance. Inclusion of opportunity ingredients that are normally not considered for diet formulation may be one such method. Some opportunity ingredients and their proper inclusion into swine diets will be discussed in the following paper.
Meat and bone meal: This ingredient is fairly low cost making it a suitable replacement for soybean meal. However the use of animal byproducts is controversial and depending on its source meat and bone meal can have a wide variety of nutrient levels. To avoid reductions in growth and performance this can only be included for around 5-7.5% in the diet.
Field peas: The DE content of field peas is difficult to predict making it hard to incorporate into diets however they are high in protein and energy content, this combined with high palatability makes them worthwhile for inclusion in swine diets.
Lentils: The optimum inclusion rate of lentils has not been determined thoroughly; however, one trial indicated that diets containing 40% ground lentils supported similar growth to a soybean meal-based diet and some western Canadian research indicated that 30% lentils could be included in diets fed to grower-finisher pigs without hampering pig performance. The protein content of lentils is on average slightly higher than in field peas. Similar to other legume seeds, lentils have a low sulphur amino acid content, and care must be taken during diet formulation to ensure that enough methionine in the right ratio to cystine is provided in the diet.
Corn DDGS: Corn DOGS has a similar DE content than the originating corn. Corn DOGS is especially high in oil content, and the main reason for upper inclusion levels for corn DOGS in diets for grower finisher pigs to prevent reductions in carcass quality and growth performance. Pellet quality may also be reduced following inclusion of corn DOGS, especially in corn diets. Samples from corn DOGS should be analyzed carefully for colour. A yellow colour is indicative of proper drying whereas a dark brown colour is indicative of excessive heat during drying and therefore reduced availability of enclosed nutrients for swine.
The effect of the Ca: total phosphorus ratio on the efficacy of supplemental phytase in the diets of weanling swine – monograph
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments
Phytase (500 FTU/kg) addition to com-soymeal diets fed to weanling pigs increased P digestibility from 42 to 53 %. Moreover, the excretion of soluble inorganic P in the faeces, whether expressed in g/d or as a proportion of total P intake was decreased with the addition of 500 FfU phytase to the diet. The efficacy of phytase was decreased as the Ca:tP ratio increased from 1.12 to 2.31. Adding phytase to a swine diet decreases output of total P in the manure. If the diet is formulated to account for the increased available P due to the phytase (ie. reduced tP) then the excretion of water soluble phytase in the manure will decrease similar to the reduction in tP excreted.
Potential of Cereal By-Products from Ethanol Production as Feed Ingredients for Swine Production -Monograph
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre, Prairie Swine Centre old by admin on July 7, 2017 | No Comments
With the tremendous growth of the ethanol industry, more and more by-products – namely, distiller’s grains and thin stillage (DDGS) are available for livestock rations. The nutritional value of dried wheat distiller’s grain for grower-finisher pigs was prior to start of the project unknown, especially the value of wheat DDGS produced in western Canada.
The main objectives for a series of experiment were to: a) characterize the nutritional value of wheat-based DDGS, b) to determine the impact on nutrient excretion, c) optimize feed strategies, and 4) to detect impact on carcass quality. Therefore, to study this feedstuff, the project was initiated with a digestibility experiment with cannulated grower-finisher pigs fed one wheat control diet and 3 dried distiller’s grain diets (corn, corn and wheat, and wheat distiller’s grain). Ingredient, feed, faeces, and digesta samples were collected and were analyzed to determine DE, digestible amino acid, and digestible phosphorus content for the three DDGS samples. This first project indicated in total that wheat DDGS can be used as a feedstuff for swine, but has a lower nutritional value than the parent wheat. However, feeding of wheat DDGS, in particular poor quality wheat DDGS might reduce voluntary feed intake. Feeding of wheat DDGS will increase N excretion, and may reduce P excretion, due to high P digestibility due to degradation of phytate. As such feed wheat DDGS to nursery and grower-finisher pigs may have to be limited to 10 to 20%, for poor quality wheat DDGS, whereas wheat DDGS might be fed up to 30% in finisher pigs, if a good or excellent quality. If proper diet formulation is used (NE and SID AA content), impact on carcass quality is limited but dressing percentage will be reduced by 1 to 2% due to a higher weight of the gastro-intestinal tract due to the additional fibre in the diet.. In a series of follow-up experiments, supplemental enzymes were studied to alleviate the reduced nutrient digestibility and voluntary feed intake; however, supplemental enzymes proved less effective than expected. In collaborative project, effects of feed processing especially extrusion technology have been studied. In conclusion, wheat-based DDGS can be added to feedstuffs databases for feed formulation for swine.