Prairie Swine Center annual report details pig research findings

Pig production research that reduces costs, improves product quality, worker health and safety, environmental impact, and addresses practical behavior and welfare questions for the commercial pork value chain is available in the 2012-2013 Prairie Swine Center annual report.
The pig report includes 14 scientific articles, plus updates on activity in the Center's pig production unit and technology transfer activities for the calendar year 2012.
Some of the highlights from this year's pig report include:
*Body weight at nursery exit was greater in piglets offered creep feed for one week prior to farrowing, however less than 40% of piglets consumed creep. By implementing strategies to increase creep feed consumption could net pork producer $1.00/market hog.
*Pigs fed a DON contaminated diet plus spray-dried blood plasma performed as well as pigs consuming a non-contaminated diet.
*Preliminary data suggest that preventative hoof trimming, using a Zinpro FeetFirst chute, reducing the occurrence and severity of lameness in gestation.
*A commercial scale bio-trickling air treatment unit was effective in reducing the levels of ammonia, dust and odor from growing and finishing rooms by 77 percent, 92 percent and 75 percent, respectively.

Gestation stall preference study conducted

Research conducted by the Prairie Swine Center in Saskatchewan, Canada shows that sows vary in their desire to spend time in stalls during gestation.
Eight groups of 25 sows each were housed in walk-in/lock-in stall gestation pens and studied. Roughly 95% of the sows left their stalls at some point during gestation, but how often they did so varied. "We found that the sows did spend a fair amount of time within the stalls, that they would eat and then many of them would lie down within the stalls," said Dr. Harold Gonyou with the Center. "When we were looking at them over a 24-hour period we found that we'd have 40% of the sows or so that spent less than 2% of the time outside the stalls throughout the day, but we also had some that would spend 80% or 90% out."
The sows that spent the most time outside, according to the research, seemed to be the larger and older sows, raising dominance and size/comfort questions. More research needs to be conducted, said scientists, to get the answers needed.