Building Better Bacon: Genomics Tools for Pork Quality
New genomic tools may be able to measure traits like pork quality and other heritable traits. Classical genetic evaluation has previously been used which involves breeding the best of the herd. Genomics is more accurate and can be used in traits that are hard to...
New Measures in Assessing Sow Lameness
Animal well-being and economic viability depend on being able to identify risk factors affecting sow longevity and welfare. New technologies to measure lameness are being developed, along with assessment tools for figuring out temperament traits are being researched. These can be used to improve animal...
Concentrating Energy in Young Pig Diets
Canola meal can be thought of as a supplemental protein source or a novel feed energy source due to the residual oil presence. Expeller-pressed canola meal has higher fibre content, but does not alter weaned pigs feed efficiency, nursery end weight or daily weight gain....
Feeding Sows More Efficiently
Refining amino acid requirements throughout gestation can help save costs, as they are often overfed nutrients at the start of gestation and underfed at the end. A singe phase feeding program does this, so a phase feeding program with two diets that is parity-segregated should...
Can Simple Nursery Diets Save You Money?
Compensatory growth is possible after reductions in growth rate, so nursery diet costs may be reduced without affecting growth performance in the long run. Robustness is decreased when fed a simple nursery diet compared to a complex one. No differences were found in carcass quality...
What Can We Learn From the Three Hitch Point
Standardizing operating systems may have many benefits. Benchmarking studies help measure these benefits and they have shown that standardizing may lead to large financial yields. Areas of focus should be the physical building, mechanical systems, animal handling, electrical systems and waste systems. These systems often...
Euthanasia Alternatives
Several advantages can be found when implementing timely and well-planned euthanasia's. Unnecessary suffering and costs are both reduced and welfare is improved due to a higher chance of survival of the other piglets. The most common euthanasia method in Canada is blunt force trauma, but...
Research on Soybean Meal Offers Food for Thought
By Geoff Geddes, for Swine Innovation Porc Is boosting income or cutting costs the key to success? In pork production, it’s like choosing between food and water for survival: they’re both kind of important. Since the revenue side depends on market forces that are largely beyond your control, trimming expenses...
by
Ken Engele
Recipe for Sow Nutrition: Just Add Milk
By Geoff Geddes, for Swine Innovation Porc They say “it’s not how you start in life; it’s how you finish.” Then again, “they” never met a milk-deprived piglet. Fortunately, researchers understand that a strong beginning is essential to piglet development, and milk plays a huge role in sows starting their...
by
Ken Engele
Science Helps Hogs to the Finish(ing) Line
By Geoff Geddes, for Swine Innovation Porc To succeed in pork production, you must consider a range of factors and how they interact, and dealing with low energy feed is a perfect example. Previous research has found that low, constant net energy (NE) diets for grow-finish pigs provide a better return...
by
Ken Engele