'A level of fine-tuning in hog feeding never achieved before'

Monday, August 4, 2014

So says the head of a British company bringing continuous weighing into hog pens with real-time recording of other influences and inputs that offer a new standard of management control

by NORMAN DUNN

The "Growth Sensor" concept is based on the weighing perch used in broiler production – although, for hogs, the equipment features a walk-through weighbridge continuously transmitting results to a cloud database, with the possibility of added information on barn temperature and humidity, ventilation and heating, feed consumption and water intake per pen. "The result is an hour-by-hour report of conditions and performance that give opportunities for a level of fine-tuning and control in hog feeding never achieved before," announces Hugh Crabtree, managing director of Farmex Farm Energy and Control Services, one of the British companies involved in the project.

To work on the relevant computer and software development, Farmex brought in Dcam Technology, a company that has been working for years on advanced microprocessor-based control solutions in farming worldwide. Also involved is ARM Buildings, designer and builder of hog barns and associated equipment. Half the investment comes from a British government agency, the Technical Strategy Board, established to promote innovations in industry.

Already three hog feeding farms are online with their respective growth sensor results, and these pilot projects are being used by the scientists involved to further develop software supporting on-the-spot management decisions based on the continuous information streams. The aim is establishment of an integrated management network with vets and nutritionists involved, too. Crabtree foresees the Growth Sensor system being used on most feeding units within five years. He reckons the application will work when the system is fitted in perhaps one pen of hogs with 250 animals. Price for the weighbridge with necessary hard and software support is currently the equivalent of C$32,000.

Less tail biting by using social breeding values?
When selecting for the best hog feeding performers, there's always the problem that the most aggressive and dominant animals logically get to the feed first and stay at the trough as long as they like. Pen mates do not get the same chance and can get hurt trying to shoulder their way in.

Could this dominance trait be a major factor behind tail biting and all the subsequent problems this causes in commercial pig production? And is there a way to breed for top performers that manages impressive weight gain without excessive aggression?

Social Breeding Value (SBV) is the factor trying to answer these questions by considering feeding hog performance on a whole pen basis.  Among the first institutes to test for SBV in Europe was the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala. Now, the concept is used in selection by leading pig breeding company Topigs.

Uppsala researcher Leonie Jacobs selected F1 parents for less aggression on the basis of SBV. In a weaning-to-slaughter trial, 192 hogs with either high or low SBV were housed in pens with or without straw. Straw to play around with in the pens proved successful in cutting down biting with both SBV groups, but any differences based on breeding for better social behaviour were not significant.

Topigs, however, claims that selecting breeding lines based on improved pen gain, rather than individual performance, does give lines with less tail biting in the slaughter generation. This is a company with millions of sows in production currently and which keeps all records of their performance in a single database, so there would seem to be plenty of evidence available on which to base such a statement.

Its regional director for Europe, Arno van de Laar, says: "We now count social breeding values (in our breeding strategies) to avoid development of biting and cannibalism. The selection method was actually taken from the poultry breeding sector. It means the best performers would be marked down if other animals in the same pen were not doing well, or were injured. If the pen as a whole is judged, the result is better all-round performance."

Dutch pork producers put their money on consumer communication
With national per capita pork consumption more or less level for a decade now at around 40 kilograms, you'd think the Dutch swine industry would be happy with their country's performance. After all, that figure represents almost half of total meat consumption in the Netherlands. That the sector is not so pleased with the stagnant market has more than a little to do with performance in neighbouring Germany, where the respective figure is traditionally over 50 kilograms. Dutch swine producers think they're missing out. And they blame lack of communication with the consumer.

Although there's absolutely nothing to prove that the German pork production sector has a better image, Dutch hog producers are convinced that telling the customers they care about cutting down hog barn smell and improving animal welfare will help them sell more pork on the home market at the end of the day.

In the southeast of the country, the newest hog barns therefore feature, along with more space and fresher air for the animals, special facilities for non-farming visitors and their families. Included are glass-walled cafés above the swine pens, giving clear views of the production process below; picnic areas and playgrounds around the barns; and plenty of brochures and posters about the consumer- and hog-friendly production strategies.

Such a service is offered by Gerben Oosterlaken and his wife, Antonet, in the barn they built in 2011 for 600 sows at Hoeve de Hulsdonk, near Beers. This couple tells me the set-up, including all the visitor facilities, cost them the equivalent of C$4,130 per sow place. The Oosterlakens produce mainly weaners for selling-on. They present to their public (several hundred visitors per day on summer weekends) a system including free-farrowing (no sow constraint after three days), no castration of male piglets and static batches of weaners right through to sale – all aimed at reducing fighting and disease.

The potential smell nuisance for surrounding villages is also largely gone, visitors are told, through a manure disposal system that empties the below-slat storage channels once a month with exhaust air put through a biological cleaning system which takes out nigh on 100 per cent of dust and ammonia.

Free-farrowing features the Pro Dromi system developed by the country's University of Wageningen Sterksel Swine Innovation Centre. On the Oosterlakens' farm, this gives the farrowing sow and litter 5.4 square metres of floor space. After the first three days of sow constraint post-partum with detachable gate, the sow typically uses one wall to slide down against in preparation for suckling sessions. Gerben admits that first occupation last year with sows used to farrowing crates was not too successful. "The sows just didn't have the muscular development for controlled lying down and getting up. The resultant scramble before and after nursing cost us a lot of piglet deaths, with mortality running at 25 per cent."

Females that have never had farrowing crate experience are, he finds, much more agile. This means they usually lie down more slowly for nursing, giving litter members more time to get out of the way. Mortality to weaning is now down to 12 per cent. Other figures from this phase: 15.1 born alive, 12-13 weaned.

Helping to keep the sow occupied during farrowing and nursing on this farm is nesting material (usually jute sacking) allowing the sow to express nest-making behaviour. Afterwards, the litter members play with the material, quite often dragging it all into the creep area. Feeding for the sow is via an automatic on-the-floor system. The farmer reckons floor feeding is more natural and cleaner in the long run. There's also plenty of room for this, 60 per cent of the floor area being solid concrete.

"We find the sows are more relaxed with no crates. Sterksel research indicates that, on average, they lie down for nursing eight times more than sows in crates. This behavioural bonus is certainly giving us bigger and better piglets, worth, when they go away at 25 kilograms, at least an extra C$13.30 per head," explains Gerben Oosterlaken.

Another innovation for this area involves the sows leaving the pen at weaning with the litter kept on in the same pen for at least another week. When eventually mixed, the aim is groups of 18 – and piglets remain in such batches until they leave the farm. "Static batches mean much less stress for the piglets," says Oosterlaken. Average weaning weight is around eight kilograms and the hogs are sold at 25 kilograms with a mortality of just 0.5 per cent for this phase.

This farmer breeds his own type of sow, crossing Dutch Landrace with a Topigs T line sire that adds Hampshire mothering influence for the next generation. The F1 sow is then crossed with a PIC 408 for the meaty Pietrain influence this brings to the slaughter generation.

Despite this wave of welfare and environmental aspects that keep the crowds of visiting consumers satisfied, Oosterlaken emphasizes that the new barn was planned primarily for optimal animal health.

"I still remember the impact of the swine fever epidemic here back in 1983 and so, whenever I started a new unit, my priority has always been sanitary security.  Here, we have a completely separate area for visitors with no access for unauthorized people in the pig accommodation. We have a four-week system (20-week sow cycle) with weaners sent off once per month, giving very limited truck traffic. The barn is divided into four compartments with showering and clothes change between each one."

Lack of land, strict control of nitrate applications and high-density hog production add up to the Netherlands being one of the few places in the world where farmers have to search for crop growers that will take their surplus swine manure – and then pay them to take delivery. Oosterlaken doesn't have much farmland around his swine production unit and has gone as far as buying an extra farm on which to spread surplus manure. But there's still some left over. As this trade is very much a buyer's market, the farmer pays currently the equivalent of $24-$27 for every 36-tonne truckload.

"This is one reason why I do not have nipple drinkers for water in my new barn," he explains. "I use drinking bowls for all stock, although these have to be cleaned by hand. Nipples waste water and, with our system, this water would land in the manure below the slats, meaning I pay for the fresh water and then for its disposal as well." BP