Behind the Lines - February 2014

Monday, February 3, 2014

Barring something unforeseen, the pork industry in Canada is clearly moving towards getting gestation stalls out of barns. It's what key buyers want and, indeed, may be what the as-yet unreleased Code of Practice calls for in a decade or less. Sows' proclivity to compete for food and social status is a key reason cited by producers who are reluctant to abandon gestation stalls in favour of loose housing. Researchers think many generations of selection have resulted in a high percentage of sows being overly aggressive and wonder if there is a way to select for breeding stock more suited to production in groups.

Senior Staff Editor Don Stoneman writes about this Prairie Swine Centre-based research, starting on page 6. This cutting-edge research is still in its early stages and producers who are raising sows in groups look askance at the preliminary results and wonder out loud whether genetics have much, if anything, to do with aggression. Some point towards stockmanship as the issue instead.

Genetics or stockmanship? Nurture or nature? Regardless, we think this research, and the critical comments it generates, provide food for thought for producers as they grapple with the needs of a changing market.

Over in Europe, the market is changing, too. Processors now feel there's real consumer interest in a "middle way" for marketing high-quality pork with production regulations that lie somewhere between organic and conventional. Norman Dunn reports on these changes in his regular Eye on Europe column which begins on page 34.

On page 30, Ernest Sanford has an update on porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) that you won't want to miss. And, still on the subject of health, in her regular nutrition column, Janice Murphy reports on feed additives which can help maintain a healthy gastrointestinal tract and substitute for antibiotics. See page 19. BP

ROBERT IRWIN