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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:
Improving Soybean Meal Nutrient Value via Fermentation Using Newly Isolated Bacteria
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on January 29, 2014 | No Comments
Piglet gastrointestinal tracts are still developing and unable to digest large proteins, like glycinin which is found in soybean meal. Bacterial fermentation of soybean meal prior to feeding shows positive results for digestibility in weaned pigs, and this study tests novel strains of bacteria for the fermentation. Bacteria isolates from fermented foods were tested for high enzymatic activity, then used to ferment soybean meal, and the total soluble protein was measured. 10 bacteria had high enzymatic food, and had varying success at increasing nutritional value.
Impact of Nursery Diet Protein Quality and Fish Oil Supplementation on Immune Response of Pigs
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on | No Comments
Quality of starter diets appears to have no overall effect on growth performance after nursery exit, but it can impact the immune response. Pigs in this study were fed a low or high protein starter diet with supplemented fish or corn oil, and vaccinated with different antigens. Blood samples were taken 14 and 28 days later to determine the immune response. The supplementation of fish oil lowered the immune response as shown by a lowered IgG1, IgG2, local skin fold thickness, and haptoglobin. The complexity (level of protein) of the diet did not affect the immune response.
Feeding Fusarium Contaminated Grain
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on October 29, 2013 | No Comments
Certain types of Fusarium head blight can produce myotoxins, one of which is DON. DON contaminated grain can lead to decreased appetite and reduced gain at levels above 1ppm; although, lower levels can affect weanlings. Sampling remains important, especially since levels of DON levels may vary throughout a field and in storage.
Nutritional Management of Grow-Finish Pigs: Energy and Feed Efficiency
Posted in: Energy, Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on | No Comments
Dr. Patience speaks about the importance of caloric efficiency rather than feed efficiency, as feed efficiency is influenced by so many factors including composition, processing, and the individual pig’s health and housing state. The cost of energy can vary between ingredients, but overall has risen $0.16 per pig in the last few years. Therefore, it should be a focus to reduce the energy a pig spends on maintenance. One way which to achieve this is to provide greater feeder space. While nutritional content in feed remains important, Dr. Patience stresses the need to reduce the cost of energy.
Minimizing and Managing Ingredients Variablity
Posted in: Economics, Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on October 28, 2013 | No Comments
Profit loss can occur if nutrients that are paid for are not present, the full value of nutrients is not received, if nutrients are improperly utilized, or from increased health costs from under-formulation. 50% of the corn and wheat purchased is below the average nutrient content. If variability in feed nutrient content can be economically considered by assigning dollars per Mcal and the feed is assumed to be purchased at a constant price, then with greater variation in nutrients there could be a higher cost. Improved sampling techniques could help to stabilize the nutrient variation; however, this can increase the costs to the buyer or the seller. A quality insurance program could be useful for identifying problems with the supplier, lab, or livestock producer’s stores, but may be too expensive or impractical. Furthermore, the nutrient quantity in the ingredients does not guarantee that it will be utilized by the livestock, and the effect of local conditions on nutrient values is often overlook in broad recorded values for an ingredient.
Estimating real-time individual amino acid requirements in growingfinishing pigs: towards a new definition of nutrient requirements in growing-finishing pigs?
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on June 26, 2013 | No Comments
Precision feeding reduces costs, increases sustainability, and may improve traceability. In young pigs, feed intake increases exceeds nutrient requirement increases, and it is beneficial to use a high nutrient diet. Later, nutrient requirement is less and grower pigs can be fed a less nutrient dense diet. The use of multi-phase diets is already well established, but it does not address individual variation within a production stage. The nutritional requirement of an individual is hard to determine due to the normal (curvilinear) distribution of nutrient requirement in a population, so a new method was designed in this study. The “grey-box” method is based on individual body weight, growth, and feed intake patterns. After creating a mathematical model, calibration trials were run. The first calibration trial was to determine individual lysine requirements, and the second trial validated the mechanistic component. Validation trials were then run, and showed the determined lysine requirement was accurate and nitrogen loss reduced. Using the system designed, it was calculated 8% on feed costs was saved, and that it could provide a more sustainable farming technique.
Determination of Tryptophan Requirements for Grow-Finish Pigs Raised in Commercial Conditions
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on June 11, 2013 | No Comments
The abstract for a study determining the trytophan requirement as trp:lys ratio for 125kg commercial pigs. As trp:lys increased carcass weight increased, but 18% was determined to be the value where income would be the greatest.
Slowly-Digestible Starch Influences Abundance of Glucose and Short-Chain Fatty Acid Transporters in the Porcine Intestine
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The abstract for a study examining the effect of slow or rapid digestible starch on expression of glucose and short-chain fatty acid transporters. The mRNA of transporters changed, with slowly-digested starch increasing glucose and decreasing short-chain fatty acid transporters.
Development and Validation of a Spectroscopy Method to Predict Protein Digestibility
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on | No Comments
The abstract for a study outlining the use of spectroscopy to determine protein digestibility, and then comparing the value to that of in vivo protein values. The method is less accurate with N-free diets, or if corn starch particles are on the surface of the feed, but otherwise fast, accurate, and requires little sample.
Nutrient Profile and Energy Digestibility of Wheat Co-Products from Flour Milling Differ in Growing Pigs
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The abstract for the analysis of the nutrient profile of wheat flour milling co-products. 9 profiles showed protein content 15.9-27.8%, crude fibre 5.2-12%, GE was all higher than corn, dietary energy 3.21-3.56 Mcal/kg, and ATTD of energy 74.4-82.9%.