Better Pork - August/September 2002
Titan genes mapped for taste and texture
New British boar has size and quality advantages
by NORMAN DUNN
For over three decades now, the British hog industry has concentrated mainly on producing a comparatively lightweight bacon-type pig for slaughter at around 100 kg, giving a 70-75 kg carcass, while elsewhere the need has grown for bigger, meaty animals growing to 120 kg or even more.But the signs are that the United Kingdom's 10 million hogs per year production aims to be more competitive. One of the world's largest breeding companies has grabbed the chance of adding more meat quality, as well as size, to a new hybrid sire concept, the Titan.
JSR Genetics -- formed through the recent purchase of Cotswold Pig Development Company by JSR Newsham -- has used gene-mapping technology to ensure low-stress pigs with freedom from the related and unwanted pale soft exuding (PSE) meat along with guaranteed less drip loss.
The first factor was achieved by eliminating the responsible mutant gene using the HAL 1843 nm DNA test licensed from the Toronto Innovations Foundation, the second by testing for and eliminating the RN gene which affects meat and eating quality.
Pietrain lines selected over generations for lean growth and carcass conformation have been exploited as composite lines for the new hybrid and, says JSR, the result is an infusion of hybrid vigour when used with the common Yorkshire/Landrace based female terminal dams.
First tests of Titan slaughter offspring grown from 25 kg to 120 kg gave an average lean tissue growth rate of more than 440 g/day. Overall growth rate over this period was 875 g/day. Current daily liveweight gain for slaughter pigs in the top 10 per cent best performing herds for the whole of Britain was 673 g in 2001, according to Signet Pigplan results.
Offspring carcasses from the new boar had a 1.5 per cent better killing out percentage, two per cent more ham and three per cent extra eye muscle compared with conventional hybrid products.
And even when compared with Pietrain lines on the European mainland, where the breed has featured in heavy swine production for many years, the "Titan quality design" meant its offspring had proportionally more ham and five per cent more lean meat in the belly. On top of this, 17.2 per cent of the Titan pigs had a total lean meat yield greater than 60 per cent of carcass, a 50 per cent better performance than the established German Pietrain lines, some of which were still not free of the halothane gene. BP
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back British company launches herbal blocks to reduce tail biting fighting
Containing calming herbs and important minerals, this prize-winning innovation offers 12 weeks of chewing and biting for a 20-hog pen
by NORMAN DUNN
European hog farmers will soon be forced by law to have objects that growing hogs can play with in pens. Denmark, for instance, wants to introduce this kind of legislation by 2005 and would have done so already, but is waiting until research institutes finish trials to find the best type of playthings. In Germany, advisers already recommend chains or other objects for growing hogs to chew on so as to keep them occupied. Introducing playthings has been proved to cut back on fighting and tail biting.
Meanwhile, animal nutritionists claim that the right diet for hogs in terms of quantity and content can also play an important role in keeping penned hogs contented and reducing serious fighting.
The leading British pre-mix and feed supplements company Frank Wright Ltd. is combining the best of both worlds with the launch of a feed block designed to offer more than 12 weeks of chewing and biting for a 20-hog pen and containing important minerals and calming herbs.
The company, an offshoot of BASF, has tested the so-called Herbal Pig Block with on-farm trials run by the University of Newcastle in England and results indicate that tail biting was been cut by 50 per cent where hogs had the herbal block on which to chew.
This offers the possibility of considerable savings. In the late 1990s, four years of research by the Scottish Agricultural Colleges indicated that 14 per cent of losses from condemned carcasses was due to tail biting, and the cost to the industry at that time equalled $0.10 Can per hog nationwide.
The usual method of trying to stop tail biting -- cutting short or docking the tails -- does not always prevent biting and, anyway, welfare groups in Europe are pressing to reduce this practice. Identified causes of biting include poor ventilation, high levels of ammonia in the barn atmosphere, large amounts of dust and overstocking in pens. Bare pens and unbalanced diets, particularly those with low salt content, are also recognized as important tail biting and aggression factors.
The new Herbal Pig Block, which won a prize for valuable innovations in the hog sector at the 2002 British Pig Fair, meets these demands with mineral content including sodium, phosphorus, magnesium and calcium. Calming herbs are also included in the contents and these include extracts from hops and lemon balm (Melissa officinalis). It's recommended that the 10 kg block be hung from a chain over the pen and one block usually lasts a pen of 20 hogs from 15 kg through to slaughter, according to the manufacturers. Price: around $8.25 Can. BP
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Better Pork - August/September 2002
A Future for organic pork production?
by NORMAN DUNN
The rewards can be big in Europe if you want to produce your hogs the organic or "bio" way.In Denmark, prices paid by slaughterhouses are regularly 100 per cent and more above conventional pork payments, which this year have so far averaged $2.03 Can per kilo deadweight. Austrian bio-hog producers are getting from $3.30 to $3.60/kg this year, plus a number of bonuses from some supermarkets and exporters which is bringing the prices almost up to Danish bio-pork levels.
Bio-pork production in Denmark has risen from 10,000 hogs per year in 1996 to over 90,000 last year. But this is still only 0.4 per cent of total slaughtered hogs in the country. Even though exports of bio-pork have now been established to Britain, Germany, Italy and even Japan, the higher feed prices and labour required have led experts to predict that the bio-pork will remain a niche market.
Danish experience shows that, even at the star prices now being achieved, actual profit may only be about the same as conventional production. And, because of the extra inputs for items such as straw bedding and obligatory high proportions of homegrown feed, it can often be much less. On the other hand, the Danish system of housing saves capital costs, with sows on many of the farms run outside all the year round and weaners and slaughter hogs kept in simple clear span barns with open sides, natural ventilation and access to outdoor runs.
However, a recent survey of five Danish bio-hog farms with from 60 to 300 sows and all offspring fed to slaughter has shown that performance is often not much lower than conventional farms, despite the ban on routine medicaments in organic livestock farming. Average weaners per sow per year in 2000 was, at 18.8, just over four below the national average of 23. But the main reason here is the difference in conventional weaning age (around 30 days) and the accepted weaning age of nearer 35 or even 40 days in organic herds with the subsequent reduction in farrowings per sow and year.
Weaned piglets per litter with the bio-herds were 9.8 compared with the national average of 10.4.
In the feeding units of the five organic hog production farms, the survey found that daily liveweight gain from 32 kg to 110 kg was 818 g, against 817 g with conventional units in Denmark. Other performances in feeding units gave food conversion ratios of 3.3:1 for the bio-hogs with carcass lean meat percentage at 58.3, compared to 2.89:1 and 60 respectively for conventional herds. In this case, the organic figures were taken from an earlier year as 2000 conversion figures were not comparable.
Productivity and performance in Danish organic pig production Factor Conventional* Organic Litters/sow/year 2.25 1.92 Born alive per litter 11.9 11.7 Weaned per litter 10.4 9.8 Empty days/litter 17 25.8 Weaned/sow/litter 23.4 18.8 Feeders: daily liveweight gain 817g 818g Feed conversion ratio 2.89:1 3.31:1 Lean meat percentage 60 58.3 Facts: Danish Bacon and Meat Council, *statistics 2000
Austria has also developed export markets to Italy, Germany and Japan for its bio-pork. The pigs raised on organic farms in Austria represent just 0.25 per cent of the five million annual slaughter hogs produced. But "Ernte," Austria's national organic farming organization, reports that demand now far outstrips production with scope for a rapid expansion in this sector. One of the main reasons for this popularity, according to meat market experts, is that meat quality from the slower-growing bio-hogs tends to fulfill consumer expectations better.
Although carcass lean meat percentage, at an average 54 per cent, is comparatively low, the fat is reported as firm and snow white with the meat having good water retention capability. The joints can be hung for two weeks and more without significant drip loss and produce very tender meat afterwards.BP
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Better Pork - August/September 2002
Different water dispensers can help piglets avoid dehydration
Research has shown that modifications to traditional water nipples can stimulate the curiosity of piglets before the age of three daysby NADINE FORTIN
Selling the idea to a newborn pig that it should drink water from bite-nipples is no easy task. However, some small changes to the traditional apparatus can attract piglets to the nipples a few hours after birth, so helping to avoid dehydration problems.Researchers Peter Phillips of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and David Fraser of the University of British Columbia have studied the behaviour of young piglets submitted to different water dispensers. They wanted to discover which one of them would make the animal drink at an earlier age.
After watching and analysing many videotapes, they concluded that most piglets did not discover traditional water nipples mounted at a downward angle even six days after birth. Two modifications, though, stimulated the curiosity of piglets to use a water nipple before the age of three days. The first one was to modify the nipple so that it dripped continuously. The second involved either adding a short length of chain to the valve lever or mounting the nipple closer to the floor with an upward angle.
Those changes made the accessibility of water to youngsters comparable to that offered by water bowls. Usually, piglets discover the use of water bowls within 24 hours, but many disadvantages are associated with this type of equipment, such as the initial cost and the possibility of fouling. This is why researchers wanted to improve the less costly and more commonly used traditional water nipple.
In order to observe the piglets' reactions, a commercial nipple was modified to drip water continuously. Scientists wanted to know if the piglets' attention would be more attracted to the device than with one that didn't drip. The drip rate used in the experiment was 35 ml/min (approximately 50 l/day).
In one of the treatments, a chain was added to arouse the curiosity of the newborns. Researchers expected that the chain would become a focus for oral play. It would increase the chance of an oral contact with water and the animal would then learn that the activation of the valve lever is associated with the reception of water.
The floor-mounted modification involved placing the dripping nipples as close to the floor as possible, sloping upward at a 25o angle so that the upward sloping barrel catches the dripping water, creating a small reservoir. Moreover, piglets should discover those nipples faster because they are more attentive to objects at floor level.
Thirty-four litters were allocated to the different treatments. Each litter ranged from nine to fourteen pigs. Sows were housed in temperature-controlled rooms and piglets were weighed the first morning after birth, at 72 hours and at 144 hours.
The piglets' mass gains averaged 117 and 187 g/d on days 1-3 and 4-6 respectively. The control treatment had the smallest mean litter size, the average mass gains and the highest mortality (5 pigs) during the experiment. The chain-added treatment had the lowest average mass gain (due to three poorly performing litters) and the lowest mortality rate (one pig).
The behaviour of piglets at the water nipples was filmed on tape. All the oral and body activations of the valve lever were recorded. The researchers observed a correlation between those two parameters (see Table 1). When a system attracts a piglet to drink, the newborn will spend more time near the nipples. So the animal is more likely to activate the water system accidentally just by a movement of its body.
During the first six days, the control and continuous drip nipples received negligible use. However, the chain-added and floor-mounted nipples were activated more often. After three days, the majority of piglets used these nipples. Presumably, the animals associated water and valve lever just by playing.
On the other hand, the use of continuous drip alone was ineffective in attracting piglets. The animals tend to focus attention at floor level. Also the rapid disappearance of the drops of water through the slotted floor is not helping the piglets to discover the nipples.
In the project, the drip rate was 50 l/d, which is a large quantity of water. A good and cost-effective drip rate for the floor-mounted nipple could be eight l/d, which would refill the catchment every 30 seconds, or four l/d for a catchment refill every minute.
The chain-added system would require about the same drip rate. Moreover, the dripping action could only be used for a few days after birth in order to stimulate the learning process. It can then be turned off.
Further studies should be conducted on piglet water consumption and its benefits for individual animals. Also, it should not be assumed that piglets don't require drinking water because of the high moisture content of milk. While this is true for most piglets, for others who fail to establish normal suckling behaviour or where the sow can't lactate properly, drinking water may be important. A warm environment is another factor that can result in dehydration. BP
Table 1: Activations of water nipples by piglets after three and six days. Values shown in the table are the average of the median values for each litter studied.
Number of activations Nipple treatment # of litter Days 1-3 Days 1-6 Oral Body Oral Body Control 10 0 0.3 0 2.5 Continuous drip 4 0 0 0 1 Continuous drip 10 1 1.5 3.3 1 and chain-added Continuous drip 10 1.8 3.8 13.5 15 and floor-mounted
Special thanks to Peter Phillips, researcher at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and co-author of this study.
Nadine Fortin is technology transfer officer for the Canadian Pork Council and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
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