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Prairie Swine Centre Upcoming Producer Meetings
Prairie Swine Centre will be hosting a series of producer meetings throughout western Canada in early April. Mark your calendars for the location that is most convenient for you. Follow the link for more information.
Friday, April 5 - Niverville, Manitoba - Niverville Heritage Centre
Tuesday, April 9 - Strathmore, Alberta - Travelodge Hotel
Wednesday, April 10 - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - Comfort Inns & Suites
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Rapid Assessment of Trailer Cleanliness
Animal transportation is widely recognized as a significant risk for transmission of swine diseases. With the recent outbreaks of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PEDv), rigorous effort has been exerted to ensure that transport trailers are properly washed, disinfected and inspected for organic debris and microbial contamination prior to use. However, confirmation of the cleanliness of trailers after washing/disinfection/drying procedures is presently carried out mainly by visual inspection, with occasional microbiological testing using culture method (CSHB, 2011).
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Weaning Sows Directly into Group Housing
Results from this study indicate that all of the mixing treatments studied had similar levels of aggression, and that overall, mixing aggression occurred at a low level. In terms of production, the early mixing sows performed similarly, or better, than pre-socialization and late mixing sows, indicating that under good management conditions (ex. no competition at feeding) mixing sows at weaning does not negatively impact sow performance. The pre-socialization treatment investigated in this study had no production benefits, and exposed sows to mixing aggression twice during gestation. As such, it can be viewed as less optimal for management and welfare.
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Use of Novel Technologies to Optimize Pig Performance
The overall goal of this project was to assess several novel technologies which can help producers to monitor health, welfare and feed efficiency while also offering tools to predict and enhance carcass value. There are also technologies for packers to better evaluate carcass and pork quality. This will allow them to get more value from each carcass and also to provide signals back to producers to motivate further improvement. The importance of attracting investment in new technologies is apparent as all industries are benefiting from greater data management and process control through electronically controlled devices.
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Precision Feeding of Gestating Sows
The objective of this project was to assess the impact of an individualized feeding strategy for pregnant sows whose dietary intakes vary depending on stage of gestation and the individual characteristics of the sow, on growth performances, productivity and feed costs.
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Influence of Sow Lactation Feeding System on Performance
All three feeding systems resulted in similar sow and litter performance, however, both the electronic and modified feeding system resulted in a significant reduction in feed wastage and, therefore, an estimated saving in feed costs of $8.50 per lactation compared to manual feeding. The modified feeding system is a viable option for feed delivery to sows during lactation but does…
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Purchasing new feeders? Things you need to know
The minimum width of a feeding space is based on the shoulder width of the largest pig in the pen, plus 10 % to accommodate variation in body shape.
Feeders are most crowded when growing pigs reach a point that only one pig can eat from a feeder space at the same time (typically 25 kg), at which point they spend 80-110 minutes/day eating, depending on the feed and feeder type.
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Coming Events
London Swine Conference - March 26-27, 2019 - London, Ontario
Several speakers from Prairie Swine Centre will be making presentations at this year's London Swine Conference. Don't forget to check out program details.
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