WASTE NOT WANT NOT
By ROBERT IRWIN
Surprising new information about pigs' habits is emerging from the latest research conducted at the Prairie Swine Centre in Saskatoon. Manufacturers of the 12 commercial feeders evaluated implemented design changes in their products when results of several recent studies were revealed.
"When you look at the feed wastage of the feeders that we had here, they all fell in to what 10 years ago would have been considered extremely good levels," observes research scientist of ethology Harold Gonyou, who along with Zhensheng Lou conducted the study.
Overall feed waste for grower-finisher pigs varied between two and five per cent. The range for finishing pigs, which normally waste less than younger animals, was between one and three per cent.
Early in the study, Gonyou concluded that pigs reach market five to seven days earlier with wet-dry feeders. Similar results have been reported in other studies.
"Usually, they were looking at one wet-dry feeder and one dry feeder," Gonyou explains. He says in his latest research pigs on all wet-dry feeders performed better than pigs on all dry feeders. He notes that in some cases more rapid growth may not offset the slight reduction in carcass lean percentage.
Fig. Two shows that pigs prefer to rotate their head at an approximately 50-degree yaw angle as they eat. The same figure shows that unrestricted pigs stand at a 30-degree angle to the feed. Gonyou observed that even when their body position is restricted, pigs will turn their heads to a 45-degree angle.
The study found that side panels, which protect a pig's head or head and shoulders while eating, may better define an eating space and provide protection to the pig while eating. Some commercial feeders have offered this feature for several years.
One disadvantage of the concept is that it may also force the pig to stand at an awkward angle while eating. Pigs afforded such protection remain in feeders longer. Pen mates have to be more aggressive to get them out.
This phenomenon is the subject of ongoing research, because feed efficiency improves with longer intervals in the feeder. Every time a pig steps out of a feeder, farmers lose about a gram of feed, because the pig usually walks out with feed on its snout, Gonyou explains.
No single-size feeder will suit pigs throughout the grower-finisher period. Depth measurement is critical and must be kept to a minimum.
Gonyou's study used an experimental feeder (Fig. One) to find which measurements work best. Outside dimensions are 45 cm width by 45 cm depth by 90 cm hight.
If a feeder is too deep, the pig will walk in it and spread feed around the pen. Depending on pig size, ideal depth varies between 14 and 32 cm for 22 kg to 95 kg pigs, See Fig. One.
Producers who intend to use a single feeder throughout this period should choose a depth between 20 and 30 cm. Lip heights should be 10 to 15 cm.
Some feeders evaluated contained adjustable plates for adjusting feed flow. For the study all were set at 5/8 inches. It was found that this height seemed to work best and matched the height adapted by manufacturers of non-adjustable feeders.
Gonyou says floor feeding, still popular on many farms, can be efficient, but must be done several times a day for maximum gains and minimum waste. As they grow, pigs need increasingly more feed. Whoever dispenses feed on the floor has to decide repeatedly how much the daily increase should be.
Too little restricts gains. Pigs waste any excess by kicking it into the manure.
Gonyou suggests one reason feeders are becoming more popular is greater reliance on hired labour and farm owners' desire to reduce workers' decision making to a minimum.
While Gonyou's research contains a wide range of data to help producers make decisions about feeders, it doesn't pick a No.1 feeder brand. "This study was done on a variety of feeders to look at general features, not trying to identify specific models that were better than others," he cautions.
Still, manufacturers are affected by the trials. All participants were advised of the results when the study concluded.
"One manufacturer was making a new feeder a week later," recalls Gonyou.
Isar is the name of one of Georg KÜge's favourite sows-and little wonder. This pedigree Pietrain has produced 223 live piglets in 22 litters, and in April this year, was ready to be served for litter 23.
Isar also adds quality to quantity - a son from one of her granddaughters, for instance, was judged one of the "Best of Show" at AI throughout Germany and Austria. Total earnings for 75 breeding boards sold by KÜgel out of Isar's litters now top C$90,000.
KÜgel, who runs a 25-sow pedigree Pietrain herd in Bavaria, says a long production life is one of the strong characteristics of his Pietrains.
What's the secret of KÜge's long-life pigs? "Well, we don't use farrowing crates for a start," he says. "Sows are farrowed individually in roomy 2.8 x 2.7-metre pens with straw bedding. After weaning, sows are loose-housed and straw is used on the floors right through the breeding cycle with no slats in the buildings. "I find the sows are healthier and more vital this way. They get a lot of moving about, and this means we hardly ever have bother with leg or foot problems," KÜgel says.
Another KÜgel recipe for long production life is his weaning philosophy. Piglets are not taken away from mother until they've reached at least 12 kg - between 28 and 35 days.-ND
By ROBERT IRWIN
There's been a resurgence of interest in swine growth models. Growth models are programs for predicting the results of changes in areas like management and nutrition, without having to test groups of animals.
"The biggest impact it will have is reducing costs and/or improving performance so your income, after all costs, is higher," predicts Tom Robinson, swine product group manager, Ralston Purina Canada. Ralston Purina International has helped develop one of the world's leading pork growth models.
Purina is in the third year of a five-year collaborative growth model research project with the University of Guelph in co-operation with universities in the Netherlands and New Zealand.
Ralston Purina Canada nutritionist Bruno Marty says by reducing or eliminating the need for feed trials, the technology reduces Purina's cost of new feed development and shortens the time required to get a new product to market. He says that by next summer, Purina swine specialists will also be equipped to use the model to troubleshoot on customer's farms.
Some producers use a single feed throughout the grower-finisher phase, while others routinely feed four or more different rations. Table One, page 21, compares a single-phase feeding program with one where three separate rations are provided.
In this example, theoretical feed cost per pig is lowered from $57.90 to $57.50 with a three-phase approach. Pigs reach market weight in 96 days instead of 99 and carcass index rises from 105.4 to 106.4.
Gross margin for the producer jumps from $76.50 to $83.50 per pig. Marty says that with one ration young pigs are probably underfed while older pigs are likely consuming more nutrients than necessary.
Table Two shows daily feed intake for a 28.5 kg pig is 1.45 kg. The same pig eats 3.12 kg by the time its body weight reaches 109.2 kg.
Average daily gain at the same weights jumps from 614 grams per day to 992 grams per day.
The same table shows feed conversions are best in younger pigs. The 28.5 kg pig needs 2.48 kg of feed per kg of gain compared to 3.12 kg per kg of gain in a 109.2 kg.
Therefore, a single feed that fails to allow a young pig's potential gain reduces profitability. But feeding too many rations may add extra labour, management and storage overheads to the cost of producing a pig.
Still, every farm is different. Without costly on-farm trials, it's impossible to pinpoint how many phases of feeding are cost-effective on an individual farm. The growth model will be able to answer that question for many farms by evaluating inputs along with pig genotype and grading information.
Robinson says the growth model will benefit the environment because it will help producers reduce protein and phosphorous in rations. Excessive levels of these nutrients are excreted in manure and have been fingered as pollutants.
"We see potential for other industry associates to utilize this model, too," says Robinson. Potential users could include researchers, swine genetic companies and developers of vitamin and mineral ingredients.
Marty describes the model as "extremely costly", noting Purina has exclusive rights for the next two years with a first refusal option for a further term. While some might question the idea of giving one company such a competitive edge, University of Guelph researcher Kees deLange says, "we deliberately chose to work with one company."
DeLange, a one-time Purina scientist, says the company is equipped to provide the kind of feedback required for such a complex undertaking.
If the hype surrounding growth models sounds familiar, it's because the idea was highly touted as much as 10 years ago. "It's very clear when models were first coming out they were oversold," deLange recalls.
But now, in addition to extensive work on the models themselves and massive research results surrounding the biology of the pig, there have been improvements at the producer level that make models more effective.
Marty observes that record keeping has improved on most farms and the trend toward larger operations has brought more uniformity in production, making model inputs more meaningful.
Well-watered moms wean heavy piglets
BY NORMAN DUNN
The problem of getting lactating sows to drink more water encouraged the Graham family of Gloucestershire in England to develop a sow trough with separate feed and water areas including a six-litre water reservoir. Trialed in the Graham's 160-sow unit, the new configuration not only increased water intake - some sows were observed drinking four to five litres at a time - feed consumption rose also, according to David Graham, who developed the concept. He won an industry innovation prize at the British Pig & Poultry Event this summer.
Piglets were an average 0.43 kg heavier at 21-day weaning compared with those weaned from sows using a conventional open feed trough with nipple water drinker, he explains.
Now to be sold under the name Lactating Sow Trough by DG Marketing, the Grahams trough also saves feed wastage. "Normally," says Graham, "the lactating sow has a lot of feed put in front of her and it's not all eaten at the same time. Where the water nipple is above the feed, this results in wet feed. The result is less feed intake and subsequent waste."
There is another point of view among hog farmers : that sows prefer to eat their feed in a liquid or semi-liquid form. Graham agrees that this may be so when the feed is fresh. "But the milking sow gets so much at one time that she cannot possibly finish it off at once. This means the wet feed gets less attractive the longer it lies in the trough. Dry feed stays fresh and appetizing longer, and fresh, clean water is always preferred by the sow," he says.
The galvanized metal trough, complete with float chamber for continual water topping-up, costs around C$173.25.
For more information contact David Graham, DG Marketing, telephone 44-1295-780444, fax 44-1295-788429.
Tunnel buildings come in under budget
Tunnel buildings being built in France and Germany for hogs are proving 20 to 25 per cent less expensive than traditional livestock housing. Thanks to new tunnel design, which features fully insulated, double-skinned sheet steel roofing on top of low concrete side walls, hog housing is being built for just over C$330 per feeding pig place.
The new designs - also available in France for cattle and poultry housing - are based on a standard 30-foot-wide design featuring a wood framework bearing an outer layer of corrugated metal sheeting with a polyurethane foam lining faced with aluminum.
A typical recent development features an 88-foot-long tunnel containing the farrowing housing for a 170-sow herd. The 258-square-yard building has two apartments each with 16 farrowing pens and cost a total C$120,800 according to Thierry Fouragnan, owner of the company producing the tunnels, Themma-Innovation. Without all the inside equipment, the tunnel on its own costs C$60,300.
"Most of the saving is made in the exterior walls," he explains. "Because of the arch of the tunnel roof, I only need to make my side walls 46 to 50 inches high instead of 100 to 105 inches required for a conventional gable-ended building. In fact, with farrowing houses, I can cut the side wall height down to 30 inches in some cases, and even less for poultry houses."
The designer says the only heating required in his tunnel farrowing houses comes from the infrared lamps used in the farrowing pens. Ventilation in most of his pig tunnels features air drawn into the negative-pressure under-roof space and then down into the livestock accommodation through perforated hanging ceilings. Waste air is then drawn out of the building by side fans.
Latest designs of the Fouragnan idea include "double tunnels" with two buildings built side by side separated by a 55-inch-wide ventilation passage. "The total breadth is then 67 feet and, of course, the length can be as long as you want," says Fouragnan.
A 864-place feeding pig tunnel with six departments just completed on a French farm fits under a 114-foot-long double tunnel. Total cost was C$288,000 or C$333 per pig place. - ND
By ROBERT IRWIN
The rest of the world has Bill Gates and Microsoft from California. But the Ontario pork industry has Larry Charlton and Save Tyme Software from Cambridge.
A growing number of pork producers who depend on computers would almost find it easier to do without Gate's Windows 95 than Charlton's Swine Tyme software once they use it in their operations. On the other hand, the just-released version of Swine Tyme runs on Windows 95, so both are necessary.
Thames Bend Farm's Warren Stein say Charlton's Swyne Tyme programs have made a big contribution to its profits.
Charlton "has an option that allows us to track our multiplier herds," Stein explains. The software will also interface with Ontario Swine Improvement (OSI), so herds like Thames Bend with large numbers of pigs to performance test don't need to complete records manually.
Breeders find accuracy improves because the risk of error drops when raw data is entered only once. Nowhere is this more evident than with purebred registration applications, which Swyne Tyme handles electronically with Canadian National Livestock Records in Ottawa.
"We can upload the sow productivity information electronically to them, and at the same time we can download the index information," Charlton explains, referring to the link with OSI.
Although Swyne Time is best known in Ontario, farms across Canada are using it. In addition to the breeder and multiplier programs, Swyne Tyme has specialized modules for commercial herds and artificial insemination units.
Breeders and commercial men can generate reports showing the parity of all sows in the herd. Detailed sow and boar reports identify superior animals and ones which should be culled
Charlton is currently pioneering the use of a hand-held scanner on several farms. It reads bar-coded ear tags brought in from the United States, eliminating the time consuming and often frustrating task of deciphering and recording conventional ear tags and tattoos.
Pigs are tagged at two-to-three weeks of age. Although success with similar technology has been elusive during trials over the past decade, Charlton thinks things have improved.
If the technology does prove itself this time, the electronic identification will eventually be used to retrieve slaughterhouse data. "If we track those pigs back from the packer and find they've got some scar tissue in the lungs, and find out what barn and what pen they came out of, maybe we'll find the pit fans quit for a couple of days."
Biggest competition for Swine Tyme is PigChamp from the United States. "Our commercial program costs about $300, which is less than the cost of their updates," boasts Charlton.
He says another advantage of Swyne Tyme is the wide assortment of packages that complement swine. "We have accounting, dairy, crop, poultry, and beef and they all talk to each other."
Charlton says he has spent the past 18 months developing this capability, known as "integrated modules." He says his system is the only one in North America offering this feature.
"When you take your crops off and you sell your corn to your swine operation (the module) updates the profit and loss on your swine operation as well as your crop business."
Another key feature Charlton sees missing in competing products is the ability to determine production costs while calculating for labour, depreciation and interest.
"If you have a farm that's free and clear, your cost of production is a lot different than the guy who owes 90 per cent. There's a difference if you have two men managing a 500-sow unit instead of four."
If Charlton's experience with computers is more practical than most it's because he became a software developer when, as a farm manager, he grew tired of writing reports for absentee owners.
His crop package provides individual field information such as the amount of fertilizer used and yield per acre, along with costs.
What are the biggest mistakes Charlton sees newcomers to computers making? He says many think they need to take courses to learn how to run their new computer.
"It's the software they need to learn about, not the hardware," he emphasizes.
There is one area in which Charlton can really relate to Bill Gates. His latest release was late.
Not years behind schedule, as Gates was with Windows 95 and more recently it seems with Windows 97, but several agonizing months, nevertheless. Windows 95 has simplified computer operation for users but it has made programming a challenge.
Charlton says simple programs that used to take a few hours to design and a few minutes to debug can take more than a day to complete because there are a lot more variables to consider.
"I can project and I'm 500 per cent out. It's very unpredictable."
By DON STONEMAN
The newest farm environmental battleground is Huron county, a provincial pork production leader. Lakeshore cottage owners there are blaming pig farmers for beach closures this summer.
Cottage groups are lobbying townships to ban new pig barns and crack down hard on polluters. Local newspapers have taken up the cause and Queen's Park, where new right-to-farm legislation has recently been introduced, is watching closely.
Don Hilborn, the Ontario agriculture ministry's waste management specialist, told farmers near Seaforth recently that he hopes they can stave off the banning of liquid manure use on the province's pig farms. Liquid manure guns have been banned in Quebec because of environmental concerns. But Hilborn still sees their value in moving large amounts of manure in a hurry to farm fields, where they can be used to replace commercial fertilizer in cropping operations.
Farmers in Huron and other good farming counties face a critical dilemma as they spread liquid manure, Hilborn said. Liquid manure gets into tiles in fields and then into watercourses. "The dilemma is, the better the crops and soil conditions, the worse the problem is."
Typically, loam and clay loam soils have fractures that take the manure down to the tile drains. It is usually less than one-tenth of a percent, but any black effluent from tiles is unacceptable, Hilborn said.
Farmers should be monitoring their tile outlets, Hilborn said, and pre-cultivate if effluent is present. Current thinking suggests one pass in dry conditions breaks up the cracks on the top and stops liquid from passing through to tiles below.
Hilborn thinks there are ways to deal with the problems posed by irrigation guns.
One way is to replace guns designed to spread water with guns built especially for manure. Systems to spray water on crops in drought areas are designed to break up the water into a mist so it doesn't damage growing crops. But low-pressure hoses supplying large nozzles on manure guns don't produce an aerosol spray that is likely to drift. "Instead of spraying it, we throw it," Hilborn said.
Hilborn warned farmers that they must have automatic shutdown systems on liquid piped systems, or two people operating the system to minimize the risk of a substantial spill due to pipes coming apart. Farmers shouldn't run pipes through culverts under municipal roads because they risk a spill going directly into the watercourse. More permanent lines being built to carry manure to fields minimizes the risk of spills.
"We can't have irrigation systems running on their own," Hilborn said. Farmers are getting better at making sure the gun returns across fields quickly enough to prevent puddling that runs into drains: "If we don't do that some of these systems will be banned."
In spite of the controversy over manure handling in recent months, Hilborn thinks Ontario farmers are leading the livestock industry in North America when it comes to managing manure. "I think Ontario is already doing an excellent job. We have the biggest storages of anywhere I know...We have to do a good job and then tell society we are doing a good job."
Hilborn cited an Oxford hog producer who grows alfalfa around his hog barn to use up nutrients and then sells the alfalfa to a nearby dairy farmer. "Everybody works together," Hilborn said. With pressures growing on the farm community, groups like the Huron Land Stewardship Association are taking on new prominence, and manure management workshops are well attended by farmers. More than 100 farmers attended the Seaforth workshop, in spite of nearly perfect weather for fall field work.
John Arts, a Seaforth-area 600-sow farrow-to-finish operator who hosted the workshop, said pork producers "are sitting front and centre in this attack," but other livestock farmers could be next in line.
The pressure on pig farmers is growing elsewhere, said Hilborn. In September, South-West Oxford township put a moratorium on building new hog barns, Hilborn said.
Dennis Nuhn of Nuhn Industries, a Sebringville-based company specializing in manure management equipment, thinks that manure is a more valuable resource than most farmers realize. "Manure is an ugly duckling," Nuhn said. "It's a vital link in the cycle of life, but it's not that pretty."
"I don't think there will be any technology that makes manure disappear," Hilborn asserted. But Ontario farmers have yet to face the restrictions imposed on Dutch farmers, who must reduce the amount of manure they apply or face stiff fines see page 32.
Farmers see even the local press turning against them. Evert Ridder of Holmesville, chairman of the Huron County Federation of Agriculture environment committee, said farmers are trying to network together "looking for solutions so that we can find solutions instead of fingerpointing."
Huron farmers have taken the brunt of attacks during the recent uproar over pollution in watersheds draining into Lake Huron. Cottage septic systems are as much to blame as livestock operations, they say, and at presstime farmers were seeking a test to determine if bacteria that forced beach closures is from human or animal sources.
Even the local Goderich newspaper has turned against farmers, Ridder said. A recent cartoon depicted "a bunch of pigs peeing in the lake, saying 'there was no problem because there was all kinds of room.' I thought that was terrible," Ridder said.
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Manure laws rule in The Netherlands
Dutch farmers and government have agreed on new manure spreading controls to come into effect in January, 1998. Formerly, only fecal phosphate amounts were used for assessing limits to manure spreading. Under the new manure registration system, nitrogen will also be counted and both artificial and animal manure will be included in the totals.
The system is based on manure accounting, with farmers having to record all manures applied to land and also the nitrogen and phosphate values of all materials sold off the farm such as wheat, meat, milk or eggs. Government has set a sliding scale for the maximum differences allowed between the two totals - in other words, the amount of N or P "lost" to the soil, air or ground water. If the losses are more than the prescribed limits, farmers are fined.
Permissible N and P losses are adjusted according to the environmental sensitivity and soil type of an area, but the maxima allowed for next year are 36 pounds per acre P on both grassland and arable and 267 pounds of N per acre on grassland and 156 pounds of N per acre on arable crops. See Table One. All manure bookkeeping has to be checked by a chartered accountant each year.
Exceeding the maximum will attract no fine in the first year for P. For N, however, the equivalent of C$0.48 will be charged for every pound over the limit. From January, 1999, excess P will attract a C$0.80 per-pound fine for the first 22 pounds and C$3.18 per pound of P thereafter. Maximum levels of N and P losses will be decreased over the years. In the case of P, it is proposed to double the excess penalties from 2000 onwards.
The new manure bookkeeping system applies only to farms that have a stocking rate of over 1.2 breeding sows per acre or 6.3 feeding hogs per acre - the land being fields on which the farmer can spread his hog manure.
The major Netherlands farmers' union, LTO, says that farms so far exempt from the system - specialist arable farms and those with less than 1.2 sows or 6.3 feeding hogs per acre - will probably also have to join the manure accounting system after 2000. -ND
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