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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:
Public attitudes predict community behaviours relevant to the pork industry
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles by admin on May 9, 2017 | No Comments
The results of this study show that community attitudes strongly predict engagement in community behaviours related to opposition of the livestock industry, and to a lesser extent, to consumer behaviours such as pork consumption. Approximately 15% of the sample was identified as opinion leaders, who tended to eat less pork, held less positive attitudes towards the industry and engaged in many more community behaviours. While these data may be somewhat more representative of the views of older, more educated Australians, they do suggest that future research is needed to advance understanding of opinion leaders and ways of engaging them in dialogue about pork production.
Public attitudes predict community behaviours relevant to the pork industry
Precision nutrition can significantly reduce feed cost by improving nutrient efficiency and reducing N and P excretion
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Precision feeding systems address some of the key issues in today’s intensive livestock farming which are as follows.
- Reducing feeding costs by improving feed and nutrient efficiency
- Improving production system sustainability by increasing profitability and reducing production footprints
- Increasing food safety through traceability
- Improving animal health by the automatic monitoring of individual animals and the responsible use of antibiotics
Essential elements of precision livestock feeding systems include.
- Precise evaluation of the nutritional potential of feed ingredients
- Precise determination of nutrient requirements
- Formulation of balanced diets that limit the amount of excess nutrients
- Concomitant adjustment of the dietary supply and concentration of nutrients to match the evaluated requirements of each pig in the heard
For the purpose of enhancing the Canadian markets sustainability and competitiveness precision livestock feeding systems are developed to do as follows.
- Feeding pigs within a herd according to their individual daily nutrient requirements which:
- Reduces feed cost
- Reduces feed fabrication, storage, management and shipping costs
- Reduces nitrogen, phosphorus and other polluting manure constituents
- Managing feeds and animals by advanced computerized technology to:
- Allow real time off farm monitoring of feeds and animals for optimal slaughter and production strategies
- Reduce labour requirements and costs
- Allows early detection of diseases and precise application of treatments causing improved herd performance
- Allows easy application of optimal production strategies with each herd to:
- Automatically manage individual feed supply and composition
- Facilitate the evaluation of new feeds and feed sub products
- facilitate the determination of nutrient requirements
Designing precision livestock farming to support a future of sustainable pig production
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A key question now is how farmers can can manage their ever growing production systems to achieve high quality, sustainable and safe meat production that can meet this demand. Recent studies have indicated that achieving scale dependent benefits in agriculture requires new production technologies. A key challenge facing farmers is how monitoring the health and well being of the animals changes with increasing farm size. Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) is a modern approach to farm livestock production using technologies for automatic monitoring and control of processes typically done manually in the past. Continuous, fully automated monitoring and improvement of animal health, welfare, productivity and the environmental impact become a reality by applying this technology.
Designing precision livestock farming to support a future of sustainable pig production
An update on canola meal utilization in swine rations
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Key findings from the University of Manitoba
- Canola meal can be included in diets for weaned pigs up to 25% without adverse effects to performance so long as the diet is formulated on net energy and standardized ileal digestible amino acid systems
- Canola meal can be included up to 30% in lactating sows diets without effecting sow and litter performance so long as the diet is formulated on net energy and standardized ileal digestible amino acid systems
- Dehulled canola meal using sieving technology can be well incorporated into weaner pig diets with improvement in weight gain, feed intake and feed efficiency
- The composition of the basal diets main ingredients (corn VS wheat) influences feed efficiency in weaner pigs when dies are formulated to contain high canola meal content
- several studies show that the standardized total tract digestibility of phosphorus for Brassica napus black and Brassica juncea yellow is 30.7 and 28.3% respectively
Batch Farrowing
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Advantages
- Better control of the effect of certain pathogens in farrowing, nursery and finisher
- Less medication cost in the wean to finish period
- Potential for improved daily gain, feed conversion and reduced mortality rates
Disadvantages
- Less flexible breeding targets
- Management of fall behind piglets
- Staff difficulties of implementation and execution
Swine AI now and in the future
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There are plenty of opportunities available to reduce the number of insemination’s per heat cycle and the number of cells per dose. At the same time the sperm output per boar can be improved by managing the boars and the semen collection and processing professionally. Some systems in North America have chosen to use these opportunities. They pay extra for high index boars, have them screened for fertility by preforming a single sire insemination until the boar is evaluated for fertility. Then the PCAI technique is used to reduce the number of cells per dose and make even more use of the high indexed fertility boars.
In general this will require investment in people, people’s skills, boar housing, hygienic conditions in AI laboratories and improving heat detection and timing of insemination on farm level. As a consequence high quality insemination doses will cost more in the future, however that will easily be compensated with the added value per dose and it will benefit the profitability of the industry.
Human-Animal Relationship and its implication for welfare and productivity
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production, Welfare by admin on | No Comments
Human-animal interactions can have profound effects on the behaviour, productivity and welfare of commercial pigs. As a result of a chronic stress response, high levels of fear of humans can depress both welfare and performance of pigs. Furthermore, in situations is which animals are fearful of humans and thus the attitude and behaviour of the stockperson towards the animals are likely to be negative, the stockpersons commitment to the surveillance of and the attendance to the production and welfare issues can be questioned. Training procedures which target the attitude and behaviour of stockpeople currently offer considerable opportunity to improve both pig productivity and welfare.
Human-Animal Relationship and its implication for welfare and productivity
Editing the genome for PRRSV resistance -Banff 2017
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on May 8, 2017 | No Comments
Dr.Randall Prathar identified a molecule on the surface of white blood cells called CD163 that allowed for PRRSV to enter the white blood cells. Pigs that had this DNA sequence removed were not effected by PRRSV and appeared to grow at usual rates, reproduce normally and be no more susceptible to other infections than regular pigs.
Application of sexed sperm in pig production -Banff 2017
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The application of sex sorted sperm in the swine industry must overcome some hurdles before the technology can be commercially viable. Right now 1 AI dose would require 100 hours of sorting time. New AI depositing techniques are coming into play to reduce the amount of sperm needed and make sex sorted sperm more realistic. Laproscopic insemination is one plausible alternative especially in regards to nucleus or multiplier herds. Deep uterine insemination (DUI) is another option that would be more viable for a commercial herd. These two techniques would reduce the amount of sperm needed by one boar and thus allow one boar to cover many more females.
Current strategies and technologies for reproductive management of gilts and sows -Banff 2017
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Estrus synchronization by controlling the luteal phase of the estrous cycle
- Accurate daily dosing of altrenogest with gilts receiving 15mg/day and sows 20mg/day for 18-20 days
- inaccurate administration leads to an increase in follicular cysts
Stimulation or controlling follicular development
- Pregnant mare serum gonadatropin (PMSG) contains the appropriate FSH/LH ratios to stimulate follicular growth
- Dosing ranges from 500-100 IU
Induction of puberty in gilts
- PMSG induces estrus in 50-90% of prepubertal and peripubertal gilts within five days
- The best response occurs when gilts are within 20-30 days of natural puberty
- 30% do not display signs but do ovulate
- 30% of those exhibiting estrus have irregular return to a subsequent estrus
Follicle stimulation after estrus synchronization with altrenogest in gilts
- Altrenogest 14 days followed by a follicle stimulator 24 hours after the last feeding of Altrenogest synchronizes estrus in gilts
Follicle stimulation in weaned sows
- Triggering follicular growth with PMSG at weaning results in a more uniform population of follicles and increases the percentages of sows in estrus within 5 days
Induction of ovulation
- Mature follicles are simultaneously induced to ovulate with a gonadotropin of predominantly LH activity
Control of farrowing
- Successful induction require treatment within 2 days of normal expected farrowing date
Current strategies and technologies for reproductive management of gilts and sows -Banff 2017