Value of Validation

Thursday, November 23, 2023

Bridging the Gap Between Science & Actual Farm Practices

By Atta Agyekum, PHD, Trouw Nutrition

Swine producers often require real-world proof to be convinced of the efficacy of new innovations before implementing them on their farms. That is why commercial validation farms are utilized to conduct research to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and actual farm practices.

What is a validation farm?

A validation farm is a commercial production facility that has the setup and resources to conduct scientifically designed research trials in real world settings.

Investments in building renovations, equipment and technologies needed to transform the farm into a practical research facility are made.

Validation farms are well-controlled and digitally enabled, allowing for the capture of high-quality data related to animal health, technical performance, and farm profitability. Executing a research project requires additional resources above and beyond that of typical farm practices and therefore every farm is not well suited to this. It is important to work with a producer that has a passion for innovation and the motivation and willingness to make extra on-farm resources available.

The goal of these farms is to provide practical real-life solutions with demonstrated return on investment for producers that reflect their situation.

How is validation research different?

Validation research, sometimes referred to as applied research, is designed to solve practical, real-world problems. It is different from fundamental research which is based in theory and aims to expand knowledge. Validation research takes the knowledge from fundamental science and applies it to answer practical problems. This approach complements research done at private research facilities and Universities.

Validation research projects arise from a customer need. As such, the research team is embedded in the business and works collaboratively to ensure research results bring solutions to producers.

Validation research differs from what might be described as on-farm demonstrations as it applies a level of scientific rigor to ensure that the results are less impacted by external factors and can be scientifically validated.

Control groups are included in the experimental design to allow for comparisons to be made on the animals in the same barns at the same time as the treatment is applied.

Canadian swine validation network

Trouw Nutrition Canada is a leader in swine validation research with a network of commercial farms being launched at the beginning of the 1990s, including partnerships with several locations encompassing breeding, nursery, and grower-finisher units. This coast-to-coast farm network enables impactful multi-location studies, enabling large numbers of identical treatments to be compared against a variety of housing, feeds, health, and genetics.

The farms are true commercial operations where the producers face the same challenges as the rest of the industry.

A key feature of validation farms is having a high number of experimental units. For piglets and finishing pigs, the pen is the experimental unit, because each pen can receive a specific diet or water treatment. In sows, the experimental unit may be an individual sow or group of sows depending on how they are housed and fed (i.e., lactation crates versus group housing).

Many experimental units give us confidence that the results we see in the study will apply to most farms and are less likely due to chance.

All experiments run at validation farms are designed by PhD scientists and held to high standards of scientific rigor and animal welfare guidelines.

Key on-farm measurements such as body weight, feed intake, diarrhea incidence and severity, etc. are all possible in validation farms. These technical measurements, combined with feed costs, enable calculation of income over feed costs or feed efficiency for the select period or the entire production cycle.

When possible, data can be obtained from the slaughterhouse, including carcass weight, yield, fat and loin percentage, allowing us to capture net profits from entry to slaughter. BP