A low protein diet and oil sprinkling to reduce ammonia emissions from pig barns

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on January 1, 2002 | No Comments

Ammonia concentrations in swine barns have an adverse impact on the health and safety of workers and animals. Ammonia also has the potential to cause eutrophication and acidification of water and soil. The impact of raw canola oil sprinkling and a low protein diet with fermentable carbohydrates (FC) on ammonia emissions of grower-finisher rooms was investigated. Ammonia emissions were reduced by 42% with the low protein diet with FC, and oil sprinkling did not affect the ammonia levels. Reducing the protein level and including FC in pig diets is an effective way to decrease ammonia emissions of swine buildings

Sorting Pigs, Why We Do It and Why We Shouldn't

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments

This article addresses the question of sorting pigs by weight or sex as they are placed into social groups at weaning, when entering the grow/finish phase, or as gestating sows. A contrast is made between the stable, non-aggressive social behaviour of pigs in a free-ranging environment and our concerns about aggression and dominance related problems in commercial production. It is hypothesized that dominance will only be a problem if resources are limited and their access can be controlled by the pigs. Thus, historical systems in which pigs were limit fed on the floor were subject to dominance related problems. Limit feeding continues with gestating sows and sorting remains necessary unless some form of individual feeding occurs. For grow/finish pigs, feed is available ad libitum and floor space is difficult to defend. Thus, sorting by weight does not appear to be important for this phase of production. Sorting based on nutritional requirements should be practiced, and this leads to split-sex pens in grow/finish,and sorting by weight in newly-weaned pigs.

Impact of combining a low protein diet and oil sprinkling on odour and dust emissions of swine barns

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments

Odours from intensive operations are a significant limiting factor in the expansion fo the pork industry, and dust in pig housing is suspected to be the cause of work-related respiratory symptoms in pig farmers. The impact of canola oil sprinkling and a low protein diet on dust and odour emissions of grower-finisher rooms was examined. Sprinkling oil reduced total dust emissions by 76% but the effect of oil sprinkling and low protein diets did not have a clear impact on odour emissions. Based on this study, reducing the indoor dust levels does not decrease building odour emissions.

Dealing with Variability in the Finishing Barn

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments

J.F. Patience, H.W. Gonyou and R.T. Zijlstra

Variation is becoming an increasingly important topic of discussion in the pork industry. Differences in growth impact the time that is required to empty a pen, or a room, or a barn and still meet the needs of the packing industry for uniform carcasses. Pork producers look with envy at the broiler industry, which empties its barns in a single day, while we take 3 to 5 weeks to accomplish the same end. In the broader scheme of things, variability is both a curse and a blessing to our industry. That being the case, management of variability becomes an essential key to success in pork production.

Because variation is the foundation of genetic selection, the industrya

Effects of large group size on productivity of grower-finisher pigs

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments

A study was conducted to compare production performance of grower-finisher pigs formed into larger groups (108 pigs/pen) to conventional small group size (18 pigs/pen) and to see if this trend in the pig industry is beneficial to producers. Results from the study showed that pigs in the smaller groups had a higher growth rate during the first two weeks. Feed efficiency, ADFI, mortality and morbidity, and body weight variation were also taken into account when finalizing results. Although pigs housed in the large groups had a slight reduction in ADG, their performance was generally not inferior to the smaller group size.

Is My Controller Adjusted for Summer Ventilation?

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments

It is always exciting to see summer coming after winter and spring conditions. After cold months, nobody complains when the outside thermometer is claiming up each day announcing really warm summer days. Pretty soon, the ventilation system of your barn will have to work at full capacity, and like any other piece of equipment, it will provide you with satisfaction only if it is well set and in really good working conditions. Before we get to those warm days, now is the perfect time to verify the operation of all system components and to ensure that your controller is well adjusted.

The temperature setpoint for grower-finisher pigs can essentially stay the same over summer and winter periods. It is sometime suggested that summer temperature setpoint should be slightly increased compared to winter recommendations to reduce daily temperature fluctuations occurring during hot periods. Two experiments conducted at Prairie Swine Centre Inc. and recently published indicated that healthy pigs could adequately deal with a large daily temperature fluctuation (up to 15A

Growth rate and age at first estrus: Impact on managing the gilt pool

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments

Two essential features of effective gilt management are identifying a

Effect of Gender and Crowding on Variation in Days to Market

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments

Summary
Marketing strategies are affected by variation in days to market within groups of pigs. This study determined effects of gender and crowding on variation in body weight (BW) gain and days to market. Pigs were marketed individually at an identical market weight resulting in uniform carcass characteristics. Crowding did not increase variation; however, pigs marketed first were the heaviest pigs when traced back to farrowing. Thus, raising the growth curve of all pigs may be more practical than reducing variation. The latter appears very difficult on most farms.

Introduction
Managing variation in the production chain is receiving increasing attention. The economic impact of variation when marketing groups of pigs is enormous, yet few research programs focus on this issue. Uniformity of pigs reaching market weight may be affected by variation in growth caused by gender or crowding during the entire grower-finisher phase.

Experimental Procedures
At weaning, 493 pigs were assigned randomly within gender to a pen containing either 16 pigs/pen (0.35 m2/pig; Control) or 21 pigs/pen (0.26 m2/pig; Crowded). In the grow-finish room, pigs were allowed 0.88 m2/pig (Control) or 0.67 m2/pig (Crowded). Pigs were weighed at birth, days 21, 56, 77, 112, and 140 of age, and at market (~ 115 kg).

Results and Discussion
Crowding did not affect BW until day 77 when Control pigs were 1.6 kg heavier than Crowded pigs (Table 1). Gender did not affect BW until day 56 when barrows were 2.7 kg heavier than gilts. Coefficient of variation (CV) for BW at day 140 or days to market was not affected by gender or crowding. Together, results indicate that crowding reduced mean BW gain, but not variation around the mean. Marketing individual pigs at a specific BW resulted in similar carcasses between Control and Crowded pigs (Table 1). Overall, for an extra kg BW at weaning, 1.9 kg extra was gained at day 56 (8 wk), 2.4 kg extra at day 77 (10 wk), and 4.2 kg extra at day 140 (20 wk; Figure 1), indicating the importance of increasing weaning weight.

Implications
Marketing strategies should be developed based on variation within groups of pigs. Holding gilts longer than barrows may improve market value of a group. Less crowding reduced days to market (115 kg) by four days. Barrows reached market weight six days earlier than gilts.

Acknowledgments
Strategic funding provided by Sask Pork, Alberta Pork, Manitoba Pork and Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food Development Fund.

The net energy system and diet formulation: An overview

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments

Gross energy is the energy released following combustion of a feed sample. It provides little useful information about the value of this energy because it fails to account for that portion of the energy unavailable to the pig. Looking at digestible energy (DE) or metabolizable energy (ME) can be more useful in defining energy as they account for the loss of faeces and urine respectively. More useful is the use of the net energy (NE) system for feed formulation. Net energy, the efficiency of use of ME, is therefore defined as energy retained in the body or as the ME minus the energy lost as heat. The NE is usually divided into energy for maintenance (NEm) and retained energy (RE) or the energy used for growth (Neg). Several factors influence net energy; these are divided into three categories. Animal factors such as genotype can influence NE. An animal with a lean high growth rate potential responds to higher energy intakes by increasing a

Water Usage and Wastage From Nipple Drinkers

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | 1 Comment

Summary
The water intake of pigs is not well known since a large amount of water is wasted from drinkers. A study was conducted to determine water intake and wastage by grower/finisher pigs at nipple drinkers. Actual water intakes of growing and finishing pigs are 4.0 and 5.9 l/d, respectively. The pigs wasted 25% of the water flowing from the nipple drinkers. High nipple flow rates increase water spillage of pigs.

Introduction
Among nutrients, water is required in the greatest amount but has received the least attention. Water intake of grower/finisher pigs has been reported to range from 1.9 to 6.8 l/d, depending on body weight and feed intake. However, most a