50 Pork News & Views Pork News & Views Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Better Pork | June 2024 optimal performance. For pigs nearing the end of the finishing stage (> 95 kg), the feeder pan depth should be approximately 30 cm, which prevents the head of the pig from pushing against the feeder as they eat. The width of the feeder should be 1.1x the shoulder width of the pig and should be sized for the largest pigs that will utilize the feeder. With market weights of around 130 kg body weight, this equates to a shoulder width of approximately 32.5 cm (12.8 inches) and a required feeder width of 35.6 cm (14 inches). Many older facilities use feeders with 12-inch widths, which limit the performance of the animals. Newer facilities are often opting to install feeders with 16-inch widths. Like nursery pigs, grow-finish pigs should be provided with ad libitum (free choice) feed. The overall amount of feed consumed per pig will vary from pig to pig, farm to farm and between genetic lines. On average, pigs in the growing stage of production (25-70 kg) will consume approximately 1.4 to 2.2 kg of feed per day, and pigs in the finishing stage (70-135 kg) will consume 2.5 to 3.2 kg per day. Feed Budgets and Phase Feeding A feed budget is a tool producers can use to help manage feed costs. A feed budget determines how much of each phase of diet is given to a group of pigs, removing the need to weigh pigs or use visual observations to estimate the weight of the group. Feed budgets are used successfully in many nursery and grow finish barns. For details on how to determine and use feed budgets, see the article “Feed Budgets Can Help Manage Feed Costs” in the February 2023 issue of PNV. Past issues of PNV are available at onswine.wordpress.com. Laura Eastwood, Swine Specialist, OMAFRA OAHN Swine Producer Survey Report Summary Part 1 of this series outlined the basic nutrient requirements of pigs and important considerations when A 10-question survey focussed on the health of swine on Ontario farms was developed by Drs. George Charbonneau and Tim Blackwell with assistance from Ontario Pork. The survey was distributed to all swine producers registered with Ontario Pork via email wherever possible and through the postal service when no email address was on file with Ontario Pork. Survey responses were collected anonymously. A total of 80 responses were received. The 10-question survey collected information on farm demographics, specific disease problems, commonly accessed sources of information on swine health, and unresolved problems with swine health and production from a producer’s viewpoint. The producer survey results reflected swine farmers’ concerns and impressions of swine health challenges and can be used to compare with the Ontario Animal Health Network’s (OAHN) quarterly clinical impressions surveys of swine health issues from field veterinarians. Respondents to the survey were primarily from farms with sows (67%). Major health concerns on the farms were lameness (20%), post-weaning scours (16%), “other” (15%) and Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (10%). In the “other” category, sudden death in finishers was the most common concern. Discrepancies in responses on the producer survey to those of veterinarians on the clinical impression survey likely reflect the distinction between problems producers are most likely to seek veterinary advice regarding versus those where they do not necessarily see veterinary advice as appropriate. For example, it is difficult for veterinarians to address sudden death problems in finishing barns because such deaths tend to be sporadic and require timely post-mortems of a series of individuals to reach a satisfactory diagnosis. As a result, veterinarians may not regularly be consulted regarding such health challenges. This project provided insights into the swine health problems that producers identify as most problematic on their farms. Introduction The OAHN swine network collects quarterly clinical impression surveys from upwards of a dozen veterinarians to assess disease trends in the province. There was interest in determining whether the health issues on swine farms that veterinarians are asked to address represent the full range of clinical problems that occur on farms. For this reason, a 10-question survey was designed to provide producers an opportunity to list their primary areas of concern regarding the health and well-being of their animals. Questions 1 and 2 asked for the first and second most pressing health problems on the farm. Questions 1 and 2 were open ended questions requiring the respondent to write in their responses. Some individuals wrote more than one health concern for question 1 or 2 or both. The decision was made to combine all the answers to questions 1 and 2 as a summary statistic. All responses were categorized by production type of the respondent. Summary statistics are shown in Figure 1 for all farms (159 responses). Of the 159 responses received, lameness was the primary health concern followed by post-weaning scours followed by the “other” category, The 11 major categories of health problems are shown in Figure 1 with 16 additional health concerns listed in the “other” category
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