Better Pork - April 2006Finnish feed supplement stops tail biting
Farm trials indicate that, in 80 per cent of the cases where the high-fibre supplement was used, tail biting was stopped almost completelyby NORMAN DUNN
The ultimate accolade for a new product being tested on commercial pig farms is when the farmer wants to continue with it after the trial is completed. And, according to Finnish feed supplement producers Finska Foder, this was exactly the reaction from 90 per cent of hog feeders who tried out a new feed supplement aimed at preventing tail biting and fighting injuries.
Pekoni Break is the name of the high-fibre supplement which contains a patented yeast preparation, Progut. Progut is a natural polysaccharide processed from brewer’s yeast, which has had particular success in controlling important gut pathogens such as E. coli and Salmonella in pigs and poultry. Pekoni also contains high levels of protein (37 per cent) and sodium (26.2 g/kg).
Farm trials indicated that, in 80 per cent of cases, tail biting was stopped almost completely in pens where the problem had broken out. The supplement is recommended to be floor fed on an ad lib basis with the pigs continuing on normal rations. “The action of rooting around for this scattered feed seems to calm the pigs, too,” explains Finska Foder nutritionist Gert Rahm. “There’s also a high fibre content in Pekoni with wheat bran and linseed cake, which we think gives feeding hogs a full feeling that could also play a role in stopping fighting and tail biting.”
The University of Helsinki’s Institute of Animal Welfare has also been testing the patented feed formula on a total 16,700 pigs through to slaughter. In these trials, the supplement feed was introduced into a pen when a case of tail biting was identified. Feeding Pekoni meant tail biting was completely stopped in 27 per cent of pens affected with this problem, noticeably reduced in 47 per cent of cases and reduced slightly in 16 per cent of affected pens. There was no effect at all in only three per cent of cases.
“Once the fighting and biting has stopped for a few days in an affected pen, we have found that the supplement can be reduced and then completely withdrawn,” adds Rahm. “The pigs seem to be trained away from aggressive behaviour and, in general, do not resume biting each other.”
Pekoni Break has just been released in Denmark and there costs the equivalent of $37 Cdn per 25 kg bag BP
A supplement against tail biting
(results with 16,700 hogs after Pekoni
Break was offered ad lib on pen floor
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Single-hand sow scanning comes to the Netherlands
by Norman Dunn
One major problem with scanning pregnant sows using most current equipment is that the operator often has to do at least three or four things at the same time: steady the sow, move the scanner over her body, read the monitor and also keep the power cables from snarling up, while at the same time twisting the head to try and read an often fuzzy image on the monitor.
This typical scanning struggle twice a year with every sow became too much for hog farm advisor Ruud Kraan from Lemiers in the Netherlands. So he set out to design a single-handed lightweight portable scanning system with no cables and a very clear monitor picture. The result, the Krutech Classic Insight ultrasonic scanner for single-handed operation, is being launched in his country and Denmark this winter.The new scanner is battery powered and features an inbuilt infrared monitor offering reliable pregnancy detection from 19 days onwards. It weighs less than a kilogram and has four normal rechargeable pen batteries giving five hours of continuous operation. Cladding is robust aluminum and completely waterproof with on/off and brightness adjustments via a single knob. Price in Europe: the equivalent of approx. $5,900 Cdn. BP
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Automatic sow stimulation saves time and makes for more piglets
by NORMAN DUNN
Sow stimulation is one of the most important jobs in breeding herds where artificial insemination is used, but it’s also one of the biggest time-eaters in the working day with the last sow in the breeding line almost guaranteed to get much less stimulation than the first.
Two Danish hog producers, Steen Bilkeland and his cousin Morten Clausen, decided it was time to try and improve matters by automating the sow stimulation procedure. The result is “Mr Stimulus” -- an idea honoured at the Danish Agromek agricultural fair this January as a major contribution to hog farming efficiency.
The stimulator takes the form of a saddle that fits firmly on a sow’s back. A built-in, battery-powered air pump linked to pressure bags in the saddle massages the sow’s back rhythmically through inflation and deflation. There are two programs for the massage procedure, the first giving more energetic massaging and the second a gentler action for use during the actual sow insemination procedure. There is also an attachment device on the stimulator so that the semen sachet and catheter can be firmly positioned on the saddle.
Working time for each battery loading is 60 hours and the estimated price in Denmark, where it is marketed by Unitron, is the equivalent of $13,600 Cdn per stimulator. BP
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back A virtual visit to your future hog barn
By NORMAN DUNN
International stockbarn builder Grǻkjaer from Denmark encourages its clients to customize the company’s “Eurofarm” turnkey designs so that each new building has the special ventilation, feeding or layout features needed to make work easier on that particular farm.
But one of the common reactions the barn suppliers get when the first plans are handed over before building begins, according to Grǻkjaer manager Tommy Vølk, is puzzlement. This is because it is not easy for the layman to read the architect’s blueprints and therefore accurately visualize the end result.
“To get around this, we have launched a *virtual hoghouse tour,” explains Vølk. “Our software experts produce a CD with 3-D film based on the architectural plans. The farmer can load this into the computer and this allows him or her to “walk” through a virtual building featuring his special design wishes.”
The prospective buyer can open doors with the click of a mouse and walk down passageways between pens. Placing the cursor on specific features such as the ventilation inlet, feeding or automatic weighing and segregation point activates a video film showing the equipment actually working on a real farm.
“This idea lets the client see the buildings from inside. In tests so far, we’ve found the 3-D virtual livestock barn a good way of allowing our clients to identify last-minute changes. Features which seemed a good idea when planning were quickly revealed to the farmer as impractical when seen via the virtual display,” comments Vølk.
The CD display idea has proved so popular that, starting this spring, the Danish company will be including it in its sales package at no extra cost.
*Want to take a walk yourself through a typical modern Danish sow barn or hog feeding house? Then access the Grǻkjaer Eurofarm site at www.graakjaer.dk. Stay on the Danish language version and click “Staldbyg” and then “3-D film”. BP
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back Infrared creep heating control system cuts piglet deaths in half
By NORMAN DUNN
Piglet mortality cut by 50 per cent, weight gain to weaning increased by 200 grams and electricity savings of up to 75 per cent in the farrowing house? These are just some of the scientifically attested results where the Veng System of creep heating control is used. The concept is straightforward: if creep heating is continually adjusted for optimum piglet temperature, the baby hogs will remain contentedly in their shelter between suckling sessions, so putting on weight faster and not running around the pen where they can get trampled or laid on by the sow.
Danish inventor Niels Veng noted during visits to hog breeding farms that conventional static heating led to temperatures in the creep soaring when the whole litter was laying down under the lamp. “This usually means the piglets get uncomfortable and leave the creep,” observes Veng.
His idea was to use infrared temperature sensors in each creep to measure the precise skin surface temperature of the young hogs. The heating lamps are then automatically adjusted to keep temperature at the optimum level, usually based on a predetermined curve right through the suckling period. The heating is also automatically reduced when the sensors indicate the creep is empty, during suckling periods for instance.
Now, the latest systems beam the continual temperature monitoring to the farm computer so there’s a permanent record not only of the heat in the creep, but also -- through fluctuation -- of when piglets have left the creep. This gives information on the length and number of suckling periods, from which sow milking ability can be assessed, says Veng.
Other tests in Denmark result in rather less dramatic mortality differences with a reduction in deaths of between two and one per cent compared with conventional systems. But up to 75 per cent energy savings were recorded in Denmark (compared with floor heating systems) and the extra weight gained by the pigs to day 28 of weaning was as high as 200 grams. BP
A recent trial by the National Pig Research Institute at Sterksel in the Netherlands compared the Veng System with conventional static lamps in the creep. Piglet mortality (from born alive to day 10 of life) was 8.57 per cent for the conventional creep heating and 2.31 per cent for the variable temperature system. The conventional system lost double the number of piglets through laying.
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