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Swine management
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A study conducted in 2001 in Ontario found that of 4,760,213 market weight pigs shipped to packing plants, 7969 died prior to being processed at the plant. Of those that died, 15% were classified as “subject” pigs when they were loaded into the truck. 1 A subject pig is one that appears abnormal for any of a variety of reasons. Pigs shipped in the summer months were twice as likely to die in-transit compared to pigs shipped during other months of the year. The...
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A cooperative study using 906 pigs was conducted to evaluate either mixing pigs or maintaining pen integrity during the move from nursery to finishing, and its effect on finishing space allowance. Treatments were arranged in a 2 x 2 factorial, with main effects of mixing or maintaining pen integrity as pigs were moved to finishing facilities (BW 54.9 lb) and providing either 6.0 or 8.0 ft 2 per pig. There were 8 pens per block and 7 blocks. In 2 pens, when moving from nursery to...
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Floor heating in the farrowing area reduces piglet mortality, according to studies of a new farrowing pen prototype. In their design of the pen, scientists have taken natural sow and piglet behaviour into consideration. Scientists have developed a new type of farrowing pen that ensures the sow and her piglets improved conditions. One of the features in the new pen is floor heating in the farrowing area, which has been shown to reduce piglet mortality with an average of one piglet per...
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Pork producers are facing a period of rapidly increasing feed and production costs. The following management tips and resources have been compiled by the Pork Checkoff to assist producers in identifying opportunities to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. This information was gathered from experts and producers across academia and industry and from many valuable industry based Web sites in the United States and Canada. These tips are not listed in order of priority and implementation...
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When pigs are transported over long distances, we do not know very much about their behaviour and welfare. Scientists from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Aarhus intend to rectify that. When pigs are transported over very long distances we do not know very much about how they fare and how they spend their time while in the truck. We also do not know if it is better for them to spend the obligatory breaks in the truck, as compared to being unloaded at a staging...
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Even on well managed hog farms, some animals die before being marketed. For example, a 1,200-sow farm that produces 2.2 litters per sow per year and sells weanling pigs can have need for disposal of 36 sow carcasses and 7,920 stillborn and other dead piglets annually. A finishing farm producing 10,000 market hogs annually requires disposal for approximately 300 pigs each year (Table 1). These examples are based on a 3% annual mortality rate for breeding sows and market hogs and the loss of 3...
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What is the ratio boar:sows in the early beginning of a swine production? Thank you for your answers. ...
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Pig breeding company ACMC has offered free conversion to their advanced PigCom pig recording system to those producers using the Easicare programme following the withdrawal of technical support by Agrosoft for Easicare and H. M. Boot DOS-based systems on 31 March 2008. Since Easicare was originally developed by the Curtis family, ACMC can import data and convert all sow records into an updated windows-based format. “Apart from the obvious differences in data entry between DOS...
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Water is an essential nutrient which is often overlooked and given little attention. Plentiful, good quality water is essential for optimum swine production. Pigs obtain water from three sources: water contained in the feed, metabolic water and water consumed by drinking. Pigs can successfully tolerate a wide range of water quality and will adapt to water which contains compounds that impart a negative effect on performance. Above all else, pigs need sufficient quantities of water to maintain...
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Castration of male livestock intended for meat production is a long standing management practice. In North American swine production, castration is essentially universal and only a select few male pigs are left intact as potential breeder boars. There are two primary reasons for feeding out barrows rather than boars in pork production. The first is behavioral. As the age and body size of sexual maturity is reached, boars tend to be more aggressive with pen mates and more difficult to handle...
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Recently 4-H and FFA members toured the 1200-sow farrow-to-wean swine operation at Sunset View Farm near Zuni, Virginia. Farm Manager Dave Tribby asked the enthusiastic group of participants “if one of these sows does not eat her daily ration of feed, what is the first thing you should check?” The youngsters gave some thoughtful answers such as “take her body temperature” or “check the feed quality.” But no one gave the answer Mr. Tribby was looking for. He went on...
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A new tool is now available to Ohio pork producers to help them better manage the environment in their livestock facilities, potentially improving production and boosting overall savings. Ohio State University Extension has designed a ventilation trailer, complete with all the bells and whistles found in typical mechanically ventilated livestock buildings that simulates various ventilation system scenarios. The idea is to aid producers in fine-tuning their swine building ventilation...
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Feet and leg unsoundness is an on-going concern for the swine industry, and has been back in the spotlight lately with concerns expressed by show pig exhibitors debating the issue of feeding Paylean TM . This article reviews causes of structural unsoundness and offers suggestions for improving it. Some of the information is available in more detail in Pork Industry Handbook 101, which also contains several excellent diagrams that illustrate conformation differences. Structural...
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The Chair of the VIDO Swine Technical Group suggests producers need to be aware of the strengths and weakness of the various systems before making the switch to housing gestating sows in groups. Most North America sows are housed in gestation stalls during pregnancy. In the European Union use of gestation stalls must be discontinued by 2013 and in North America both Smithfield Foods and Maple Leaf Foods are phasing out gestation stalls over the next decade. "Turning...
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Water is an essential nutrient in pork production. Research reveals how we can manage this resource for best results and minimal cost. 1. Do a water audit. Wasted water costs money to pump and to dispose of in slurry. The average usage is 78L per sow (farrow to finish farm), however actual usage has been reported as low as 65L/sow and as high as 120L/sow, a variation of as much as 50% from the mean! 2. Water requirements have been found to be...
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Computer systems specialist, David Dobson, has been appointed by Farmex — the Reading-based high-tech company — to research methods which could revolutionise the way piggery systems are controlled and monitored. David, who gained a First Class honours degree in computer science at the University of the West of England, will be looking into wireless communication methods in a two-year, £100,00, project which has attracted almost 70 per cent government funding. The biggest problem...
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Research at the University of Manitoba's National Centre for Livestock and the Environment shows the longevity of sows housed on straw tends to be better than that of sows housed on partially slatted concrete floors. Scientists at the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment are comparing the conventional partially slatted concrete floors to an alternative straw based system, looking at animal behavior, health and production performance. Department of Animal Science head...
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Geneticists at JSR, the UK's leading pig genetics company, are uniting with top research scientists at The University of Guelph, Ontario and representatives from major abattoirs, to tackle the persistent problem of boar taint. Utilizing the most advanced gene marker technology, the multi-talented team is aiming to identify the genes responsible for high levels of androstenone and skatole - the two compounds that cause boar taint - enabling them to accelerate the 'low taint' selection...
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Our thanks to the author and Conference Organisers, a Committee consisting of both University and Industry colleagues. The full paper will appear in the Conference Proceedings ('Recent Advances in Animal Nutrition - 2007', edited by Phil Garnsworthy and Julian Wiseman) published by Nottingham University Press in the autumn of 2007 www.nup.com ...
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Our thanks to the author and Conference Organisers, a Committee consisting of both University and Industry colleagues. The full paper will appear in the Conference Proceedings ('Recent Advances in Animal Nutrition - 2007', edited by Phil Garnsworthy and Julian Wiseman) published by Nottingham University Press in the autumn of 2007 www.nup.com ...
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