Better Pork - August 2005
'Chill-out' spray quiets down fighting hogs in Germany
Trials have show that a synthetic version of a naturally occurring and slightly sedative pheromone, sprayed on suckling piglets, can have a noticeably calming effect before mixingby NORMAN DUNN
A pheromone spray based on a natural sedative produced by sows during suckling has proved effective in quietening down piglets when litters are mixed together after weaning.Researchers working for the German firm Cevavet have produced a synthetic version of the slightly sedative pheromone, which they claim also works well for quietening hogs at other stressful periods in the production cycle, such as penning for feeding phases or during transport to the slaughterhouse.
In nature, the nursing sow produces the same substance absorbed through mouth and snout by the young pigs at suckling, presumably to calm piglets during the struggle to assert themselves at the udder.
Cevavet claims reduced injuries from biting and bullying through applying its synthetic version can more than pay for the product. Cost for 500 millilitres of the substance (now introduced in Germany in a hand pump container of this volume) is the equivalent of around $60 Cdn. This amount is recommended for treating a maximum 500 weaners.
Although a similar approach with the pheromone has already been used with dogs and cats in Europe, the hog sector was sceptical of the new product and this encouraged a north German farm research institute, the Futterkamp Centre in Schleswig-Holstein, to run a 400-hog trial with the pheromone spray.
One squirt of the hand pump for every four piglets was applied over trough and farrowing pen walls for each litter. This was applied three to four hours before weaning and mixing of litters in grower pens. The grower pens got the same treatment just before the piglets were driven in. Observers reported that the treated pigs were noticeably quieter at mixing. The piglets lay down together more quickly and went to the trough and began feeding before the piglets in the control groups, which had had no sedative spray applied. Fighting was still recorded amongst the treated piglets at mixing, but this behaviour was less violent and lasted for a shorter time than in the control pens.
The Futterkamp Centre researchers say that the new spray seemed to have a calming effect, similar to that of playthings in the pens such as chains or hanging ropes.BP
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A 'Double-Dekker' swine housing concept
by Norman Dunn
Back in 2000, Dutch hog producer Henk Dekker was considering a return to a straw-bedded system for his 1,000-sow herd. To save space and make handling the straw a little easier, he planned a two-storey barn with straw storage upstairs so that the bedding material could be dropped into the pens below.
"The architect's plans were actually completed before we realized that the concept was going to be just too labour-intensive", recalls Henk. "On the other hand, we'd spent a lot of money on preparing the plans and so decided to go ahead with the building and try using the upper floor as accommodation for weaners."
This May, the unique "Double-Dekker" reached full operational strength with 1,000 gestating sows on the lower, and part of the upper, deck and the remainder of the upstairs used for growing-on up to 4,200 weaners.
Farrowing facilities, with 216 pens plus a section for rearing young breeding gilts, are located in a neighbouring building. The Dekker swine enterprise produces 25-kilogram liveweight Pietrain cross growers from Topigs hybrid sows for shipment to feeders in the Netherlands and Germany.
Below the barn, which has slatted floors for a completely no-straw system, are 1,600 cubic metres of liquid manure storage. Above this, each floor covers 2,200 square metres. The side walls are 6.2 metres high with the roof rising to 10 metres, giving room for a modern outlet-air filtration system with 30,000 litres of circulating water.
This farmer reckons the real advantages of his concept include space saving, because conventional single storey buildings would actually take up even more than double the ground area. Overall cost, at the equivalent of $110 Cdn per cubic metre of floor space, is about the same as for typical European investments for single-storey buildings of the same capacity. The cost for the roof was naturally half that of a conventional building for the same number of pigs, but this was balanced with the higher load-carrying properties, and therefore building costs, for the walls. Henk reckons that there is also less labour involved in looking after the hogs and that heating costs are lower with the double "Dekker" solution.
Liquid feeding in every department also reduced work requirements with the new design. The fully automatic system pumps feed to the gestating and the neighbouring nursing sows three times per day. Performance so far: 10.7 piglets weaned per litter and 2.42 litters per year and piglet mortality up to weaning of 10.3 per cent.
Liquid manure from upstairs is channelled into the underground storage via fall pipes built into the walls.
And how do the hogs get to the upper storey and down again to the transport trucks? Henk Dekker has created a system of graduated ramps for the upward journey that he says the animals accepted very quickly. An improvised auto hydraulic inspection platform simplifies loading of trucks. The weaners are driven onto this platform, which is then slowly lowered to match the height of the truck deck.BP
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Uniform grower groups boost weight gain
by NORMAN DUNN
Keep the liveweight range in grower groups down to 10 per cent or lower - and you'll be rewarded by an increase of from 40 to 60 grams in average daily liveweight gain (dlwg) during the nursery phase after weaning.
This was the result of a 2,000-piglet trial at the Saxony Agricultural Research Institute in Germany. Institute swine specialist Dr. Eckhard Meyer admits that sorting lively weaners for such a tight difference needs a good eye and a lot of experience. The advantages also differ a lot from farm to farm according to management, breed and feeding system, he adds.
The Saxony institute compared weaners that had been penned in the nursery unit with a 20 per cent liveweight range against pens with just a five per cent range. The researchers admit that such a close range of weights would be nearly impossible for larger groups and therefore a 10 per cent range would be a more realistic target on commercial farms.
The trial also showed that the tighter the liveweight range, the faster the group member liveweight grows apart again during the nursery growing phase. Dr. Meyer found that pens with from five to 10 per cent liveweight difference in the beginning only had 50 per cent of the pigs in this range by the end of the growing phase, although this was not too important since the young hogs had to be regrouped for feeding anyway.
Another important point found by the Saxon researchers: the more litters mixed together in individual pens, the lower the average daily liveweight gain. This result perhaps explains why the Danish hog industry is now researching single litter rearing and feeding without any mixing. The Saxony experience certainly shows that there's nothing to beat single litter nursery pens in performance, although the concept is too expensive in terms of pens space.
With the commercial reality of 10 and more litters being mixed, the Saxony trials showed that penalties in weaner growth could be high.
Initial cross infections after mixing are reckoned to be the main cause of the performance drop. In another trial with some 2,000 weaners over a 42-day growing period, single-litter pens achieved an average of just short of 500 grams dlwg. Pens with between five and 12 litters of the same hybrids averaged 450 grams dlwg, with from 13 to 16 litters per pen returned an average dlwg of only 350 grams. BP
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Fostering success with big litters
By NORMAN DUNN
Fostering piglets in hog breeding units is often avoided because of the higher labour input involved. But many Danish hog breeders no longer have any choice. A good breeding sow has fourteen sound teats and nowadays over 50 per cent of litters in that country have more than 14 liveborn piglets.But what's the best way to foster? The traditional answer on many farms was to take one or two smaller pigs out of an established litter and share them out amongst other litters, where they had a better chance of getting enough milk. Now, there are too many surplus piglets -- at least in Denmark.
NURSE SOW BONUS OF HEAVIER WEANERS Herd 1 Herd 2 Farrowings per week 11 13 Nursing sows per week 2 0 Litter size (after fostering) 11 13 Mortality in lactation (%) 8 10 Weaning weight/piglet (kg) 7.7 7.1 Source: National Committee for Pig Production, Denmark Herd 1: 11 farrowing per week and two nurse sows per week Herd 2: 13 farrowings per week and no nurse sows The country's National Committee for Pig Production (NCPP) now recommends "nurse sows." These have had their litters weaned at around 28 days and trials have shown that the best nurse sows have enough milk to rear another litter. It's recommended that smaller piglets be taken from a number of litters to make-up the nurse sow's new litter -- after they have had a day's supply of colostrum if possible.
NCPP results indicate the survival of these smaller piglets -- the runts of a litter -- can be as low as 66 per cent when they are left with their mothers. Putting them onto a nurse sow increases survival to 90 per cent.
The Danish researchers admit that it is relatively expensive to have nurse sows taking up farrowing pens after their conventional nursing period is finished. But they argue that the advantages of a nurse sow system can compensate for that. What's more, the modern Danish hybrid sow seems to have no problem milking for an extra three weeks. On average, the sows -- whether gilts or old five-litter sows -- have shown normal feed consumption and lost no more body condition than their herd mates nursing just one litter.
To understand better the performance possibilities, two pig herds were compared in a trial. Each had farrowing facilities for 13 new litters per week. One herd farrowed 13 sows per week while the other farrowed just 11 sows with two pens housing nurse sows to take the weaker members of the litters.
The herd with the nurse sows had two per cent less piglet mortality to weaning and average weaned weight of the resultant piglets (7.7 kilograms) was over eight per cent or 600 grams more.BP
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Is animal welfare becoming a hot button issue?
Evolving attitudes towards smoking, drunk driving and gun control have all led to increased demands for regulation. Could this be coming for animal welfare or has it already arrived?by MURRAY BLACKIE
Animal welfare was a prominent topic at the London Swine Conference in April with a number of thoughtful presentations, prompting the following observations on this issue.As we have seen in recent years, society is becoming less tolerant of agricultural practices that impair the air we breathe, threaten the quality of the water we drink, endanger the safety of the food we eat and reduce our recreational activities.
This recognition of the importance of quality of life issues can lead to demands for adequate regulation to achieve these values. Attitudes towards smoking, drunk driving and gun control are all examples of preferences evolving into values, which in turn lead to regulation. Could this be coming for animal welfare or has it already arrived?
When we watch a nature program on TV and we see a killer whale or great white shark eat seals, we are not offended because we view this as something natural. But when we see an Atlantic fisherman killing a baby seal on an ice flow, we are repelled because of man's involvement.
Society's degree of concern over captivity, use of animals in medical experiments or the killing of animals by people for any purpose seems directly related to the intelligence of the animal in question. Concerns for seals, whales or primates seem greater than for fish or birds.
What about the barnyard? I recently watched a news story discussing the surprising intelligence of barnyard animals, which seemed to make the newsreader question eating such intelligent animals. Any baby boomer that watched Arnold the pig on Green Acres has no doubt as to the intelligence of pigs.
Although environmental groups, animal welfare activists and cartoons on the internet extol the evils of modern livestock operations, few people seem willing to pay a premium for animals raised "organically" or practices such as pasturing, free-range chickens or natural light, which are touted as better for animal welfare.
I like to think that those of us who still eat the occasional piece of meat, but are still repelled by the image of the baby seals, can accept livestock agriculture and trust in its ability to optimize the welfare of the animals in its care. We can accept that the animal will die but still have concern for how it lives.
We can ask if the animals, on balance, experience more positive than negative feelings or greater well being, whether they can they cope with their environment and are unduly subjected to disease risk. Do they have healthy air to breath, a clean and adequate water supply, nutritious food and adequate temperature regulation?
Apart from the physiological needs of animals, which are generally well met, livestock should be able to have lives with minimal stress or fear, be able to express natural behaviour, including seeking companionship, and be protected from disease and pain.
Here are some of the things an operator needs to keep in mind in this regard:
Although collective wisdom tells us that animal welfare makes sense and is a worthy goal, operations need to maintain an attitude that animal welfare is important and valuable. A high standard of care for livestock seems to go hand in hand with a high level of productivity. BP
- Decide that animal welfare is important.
- Communicate with and train family and staff.
- Develop protocols for your operation.
- Budget time and money for needed changes and monitoring.
- Accept the need for accountability.
- Compare your operation to existing Codes of Practice.
- Identify needed changes and critical points, such as space allocation.
- Ensure an adequate health/veterinary program.
Murray Blackie is the former agricultural specialist with the Ministry of the Environment and is now a consultant, expert witness and writer on agro-environmental issues.
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Computers coming to grips with tail biting
By NORMAN DUNN
Danish researchers are developing so-called "intelligent software" to help reduce tail biting in hog herds. The aim is to offer advisors and farmers access to a program coupled to a national database that includes all known reasons for tail-biting outbreaks.Conditions on the affected farms can then be keyed into this interactive program. These can cover type of hogs involved, ventilation, temperature, building design and feeding system. Consulting its database, the system then compares results from thousands of previous cases to supply recommendations.
On top of this, the new program should steadily increase its artificial intelligence through feedback from farmers and advisors on the outcome of the solutions tried on the farm, says the National Committee for Pig Production in Denmark (NCPP), which is co-operating with the country's Institute for Agricultural Sciences on the project.
A pilot program has already been run with 20 Danish units troubled with tail biting. Details of building design and as many other variables as possible were recorded, with the program subsequently analysing the results through a so-called "Beysian net" calculation to find the most probably causes of tail biting.
"We've also been running trials with altered conditions and pens where nothing has been changed," explains Torben Jensen, the NCPP's head of Animal Housing and Production Systems. "These have indicated that most effective solutions so far in reducing tail biting outbreaks have included giving more feeding space per pig and reducing noise in the barns. The main noise creator is, of course, ventilation systems, but the fan motors can be insulated to a certain extent and this seems to help."
So far, the project has produced an initial checklist to give farmers a guide to the most obvious causes of tail-biting outbreaks. This urges producers to check out water supply, feeding, stocking density, pen design and temperature, as well as air quality and noise levels.
Findings so far indicate that if there are no playthings for the pigs, then adding something like a few hanging ropes over the pens has a magical affect on tail biting. Another tip: handfuls of straw for the pigs to play with.
The Danish researchers stress that these "cures" usually only have a temporary effect, but they do give time for farmers to pinpoint the real causes. Around Christmas 2005 the Danish researchers hope that the first concrete figures will be available on the computer program's effect on reducing tail biting.BP
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