Effect of Rubber Flooring and Social Grouping on the Utilization of Free Space for Sows in Walk-in/Lock-in Stalls
A gestation stall alternative are walk-in/lock-in stalls, a group housing design that gives sows a choice to the communal area or to remain in the stall while providing individual feeding protection. Most sows use the free space area, but they...
Early Detection and Interventions for Reducing Lameness in Gestating Sows
One of the most common reasons for culling sows in lameness. Overall herd productivity, sow welfare and sow productivity can be increased if treatment and prevention of lameness is implemented. In order for sows to generate profit, they must remain...
Investigation of Translactational Analgesia for Reducing Piglet Pain at Castration
Painful livestock procedure concern is increasing, with one of pig productions key issues being castration of piglets. Castration is done in male piglets to avoid ‘boar taint’ which is the development of undesirable odours that can occur in the meat...
Temperament Traits Related to Stress and Meat Quality: Are they Reliable and Heritable?
Welfare, ease of handling, stockperson labour required to move and productivity are all influenced by the susceptibility of pigs to stress. Severe losses for packers and producers often arise from stress during transport and handling of pigs at marketing. This...
Development of an Air Filtration System for Swine Transport Vehicles to Protect Against Airborne Diseases During Transport
Transporting breeding stock across Canada is a daily occurrence with farms each having biosecurity procedures to reduce potential disease outbreaks. Infecting breeding stock during transport is a risk, especially through pig dense areas. Measures are needed to protect breeding stock...
Benchmarking and Standardization of Swine Production Systems
Wide variations in building design, barn equipment, construction, management and other operational systems contribute to added costs and inefficiencies in hog barns. These variabilities make it difficult to develop improvement measures and they cannot be applied from barn to barn...
Determining the NE Content of Diets and Ingredients
Feed has a large impact on the efficiency of production. Over 65% of the total hog production cost is due to feed. Energy is the most expensive component at 90%, so characterizing the available energy in a feed is required...
Creep Feed Provision in the Farrowing Room Provides Benefits to Piglets Showing Evidence of Intake
By supplying feed in farrowing (creep feed), the piglets should benefit by being introduced to solid feed, having supplemental nutrition and by helping the gastrointestinal tract adapt to new proteins and nutrients. Some studies have found that no benefits were...
Dietary Omega-6 to Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratios Affect Body Fat Mobilization During Lactation
Litter sizes have increased due to improved management practices and genetics, though pre-weaning mortality is even higher now. This may be due to sows not being able to keep up with the energy demands of the litter. Over subsequent parities,...
Effects of Transport Duration on the Stress Response and Pork Quality of Pigs
Transporting pigs in Canada has many challenges. These include extremes of temperature and long transport durations that can cause stress in pigs, affecting welfare, transit losses and meat quality. Transport times of 6, 12 and 18 hours were studied on...
Loading Facilities for Market Hogs: Saskatchewan’s Top 10
Loading facilities can result in longer loading times, increased incidence of rough handling and prod use if poorly designed. Stress associated with this can affect meat quality, carcass and also increase the amount of downer pigs and losses. Ten Saskatchewan...
Assessment of Lameness, Productivity and Longevity in Group and Individually Housed Gestating Sows
There may be several major welfare issues in facility design and sow management for group sow housing. One of the most important welfare issues is lameness. It is the second major cause of culling after reproductive failure. visual scores can...
