South Americans Look North
It may not be long before Argentina and Uruguay are declared foot and mouth disease-free and come knocking on Canadian doors, looking to sell their beef here.There is "a distinct possibility" that disease-free status could be given to these countries this year, says Carl Block, Abbey, Sask., chairman of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association animal health committee. After that status is granted, it's up to the politicians to decide how much beef would be allowed into Canada, and up to the exporters to decide how much they want to ship.
Both South American countries have undertaken strenuous programs to rid themselves of foot and mouth disease in order to take part in world trade. Brian Jamieson, Animal Health Division, Agriculture Canada, says a Uruguay delegation visited Canada to talk about opening up trade last August. Foot and mouth disease was reported there last in 1990: vaccinations stopped in 1994, and last June, Uruguay proclaimed itself both disease and vaccine-free for a year. Jamieson says Canada "doesn't hold kindly" to the concept of foot and mouth disease-free status while vaccination is still going on because vaccination can mask the disease. He is keeping a close watch on Uruguay's disease detection system. Canada is also looking at a United States Department of Agriculture report on its inspection of plants and facilities in Uruguay.
Two Canadian officials were in Argentina in December verifying that surveillance and control activities were up to speed. "We found them to be extremely competent and extremely rigid in control and eradication as well as in their surveillance policies."
Block says this is not a good time for another player in world markets to come knocking on Canada's door. Most of Canada's access to beef markets has already been allocated to other countries. There's 76,400 tonnes of untariffed access into Canadian markets and only 4,800 tonnes are left.
"A lot of it depends on how the federal government handles it," Block says. "It's a battle between the exporters to see who will use up the access."
Imports over and above that level have a 30-per-cent tariff on them. But within the last two years, the federal government has opened up imports to supplemental import quota, and beef producers don't want to see that happen again.
Right now, the Canadian market isn't very attractive to offshore imports because of the glut of beef. -DS
Two Years Late SEW Soldiers On
By JOHN PHILLIPS
Producers plunging into a segregated early weaning (SEW) program should move cautiously. It's new and is not the highway to instant prosperity. For more than two years Quality Swine Co-operative (QS) has tested batches going through test barns in Elgin county, and results give strong pointers that SEW is not for every good producer.
Starting modestly with two biosecurity rooms in a new unit, each with an output of 150 weaners supplied by 10 producers, the unit undergoes expansion to eight rooms, each handling 350 piglets.
So what's encouraging? First, getting 14- to 17-day-old youngsters from a variety of producers, without running into disease, proves that small family farms have access to the latest technology. "They don't have to become mega units," notes QS general manager Jim Hunter. "An alliance gives all the advantages of size, without surrendering freedom." If anything, their SEW piglets are in better shape than those coming from large enterprises because family care-givers are the owners. On the other hand, Hunter cautions, producers with high health status herds will find no advantages taking the SEW route. Some co-op members market more than 22 pigs per sow over a 12-month period, "and that's hard to beat when you've got a good land base for corn, soy and spreading manure."
Many QS members are not in this category. They will have the land base but true health standards vary, and youngsters may need medicated feed. For these, SEW seems a logical approach, provided input costs are kept to a minimum. To prove this theory, QS committed cash to its test program, something wholeheartedly endorsed by the late professor Brian Kennedy, the co-op's genetics specialist who died late in 1994.
Doug Wheeler, who runs the QS program, says SEW offers participants three sources of potential income without adding to capital spending. There are good returns for farmers supplying the co-op with the three best piglets, usually the greedy ones, from a 14-day-old litter. This gives the remaining siblings better milk access to their mother, and so grow into sturdier chunks.
At this weight, usually 25 kg, they may be sold as regular weaners or retained for finishing. The three in Wheeler's hands are mixed with comparable animals from other farms - but no disease risks - and then sold to buyers offering the best price, virtually all located in the U.S.
The co-op's size now comes into play. It's in the position to offer dollar-conscious finishers same-health youngsters in 150-weaner batches, soon going to 500. The price? Hunter is naturally reticent: "Let's put it this way... they pay close to $4 each in transportation and border fees, yet they still pay us a good price by Ontario standards."
With Ontario's weaner prices still in the doldrums, prices still are a bone of contention. But what's a fair price? SEW does not have solid answers but by last October QS had analysed 42 groups of 150 going through its system. There are many variables, especially the value at the nine-week stage. The on-farm costs of SEW suppliers are now under the microscope, but Wheeler says it's now clear that finishers are the main SEW beneficiaries. "So you must change these figures to ensure that the other two components in the three-site grouping also get a proper return."
Wheeler says QS now has 14 SEW suppliers. "They make the rules and weed out those colleagues who don't match up." All have similar genetics supplied by Shamrock, a company formed by 10 QS members in conjunction with Premier Quality Genetics Ltd. whose owner, Brian Simpson, is a former QS president.
Firm bottom lines confirm that from 25 kg to 100 kg, there is a 10 per cent advantage when it comes to average daily gain and daily feed consumption. This is compared with the co-op's own finished pigs where weaners came from 10 different sources, mixed and given the same rations as SEW-supplied animals.
These figures are virtually the same as those published by major U.S. research centres, including Kansas State University, Indiana State and the University of Minnesota. Also similar are growth rates for finishing animals: 730 grams a day for control animals and 810 grams for SEW animals, with feed conversion at 3.1 and 2.75 for SEW animals.
Biosecurity best PRRS defence
While many farmers have striven mightily to keep porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) at bay, outbreaks are a fact of life on many enterprises, especially larger ones. Doug MacDougald, a Waterloo- Region swine veterinarian, says the best deterrent lies in the tightest possible biosecurity. But even then accidents may occur.When the disease strikes, depopulation of nursery areas seems the smartest answer, he told the recent Solvay Animal Health Inc. health course in Stratford. Further, after thorough cleansing and fumigation, new youngsters are better off with more square-footage per animal. His experience shows that when piglets have more room for movement, a disease recurrence is less likely.
He said PRRS damage is so high that farmers cannot afford to be sloppy. During an outbreak, herd feed costs could double, reproductive losses soar, and the post-weaning period will be fraught with pneumonias, high death rates and even unmarketable pigs.
Scott Dee, a U.S. authority on PRRS, said that before producers jump to conclusions about the arrival of the disease, they should have their veterinarian take blood tests involving 10 sows, 10 four-week-old piglets, and 10 five-month-old market animals. Should there be doubts about the titre test results, a further test might detect "naive" or "sleeper" animals.
These may be virus carriers, called "subsets", that do not show typical signs of the disease. When PRRS vaccines are used, titres "mimic those of naturally infected pigs," and so make analysis of blood test results confusing, he said. So veterinarians and blood testing centres must be alert to this potential problem. Without accuracy, nursery depopulation may be almost pointless. - JP