Eye On Europe

Thursday, October 1, 2009

When a single computer controls all swine production

Germany's first fully-computerized hog feeding unit expects higher returns from more precise management through automatic integration of weighing, sorting, feeding and ventilation systems

by NORMAN DUNN

Complete computer control and monitoring of all processes in the hog feeding barn has been introduced on one of Germany's leading agricultural research stations, Haus Düsse. All individual computers controlling ventilation, feeding, automatic weighing and sorting and recording are linked to an overall management computer, which crunches the resultant numbers from a 900-place feeding barn.

The largest pens in the computer-controlled system hold 260 hogs apiece and management advantages include daily weighing as the hogs pass through sorting gates on their way to the liquid feed rationing troughs. Networking the computers is the ISOAgriNET interface system that allows hardware and software from more than 10 different manufacturers of hog production equipment to work together. These include top international names such as Big Dutchman and Mannebeck, Weda and Agrocom.

For a run through the system with fully computerized management, let's start when the growers are brought into the barn. For research purposes, each hog gets a transponder earmark and then is individually weight recorded as it makes its way through the central sorting gate to the first feed. But the first commercial farms already starting the system – and not using individual electronic identification – say daily average pen's weights work well, too. Weights are automatically passed onto the management computer, which then uses the data to calculate and direct feeding rates and ventilation for each pen. Other input for ventilation involves information from indoor and outdoor temperature sensors.

Results so far show that the most valuable input from this system is the daily weighing of hogs, allowing much finer adjustments to feed amounts and ventilation. This precision management is expected to result in real financial gains at the end of the cycle through less feed waste and reduced electrical consumption.

Another management advantage already obvious is identification of health status through the immediate and continuous feedback on feed and water consumption per pen, as well as from daily hog weights. This is giving signs of variations in hog health long before the manager or stockman can see them.

At Haus Düsse, the individual identification system also means feeders with a below-average performance detected by the computer can also be automatically separated into a holding pen by the computerized gates at the weighing point. And, of course, also automatically selected out when slaughter weight is reached.

At the moment the system is set up so that the central management computer first warns the manager that certain pigs are to be separated from the group and does not go ahead with the actual segregation action until the manager presses the OK button.

Where individual hog liveweights in a pen grow too far apart, the automatic weighing and separation gate system also comes into its own for re-sorting pigs into groups of more uniform size and weight.

Haus Düsse scientists say the interactivity of the various computers also works well in really hot weather where indoor temperature control through the ventilation reaches its limits. Then, the computer controlling feed rationing is automatically tuned down temporarily to give, for instance, 95 per cent of full ration so that the digestion systems of the feeders are not overstressed or feed wasted.

Wooden chewing sticks keep hogs happy
In Denmark, swine producers have to supply natural play materials for hogs. Sometimes this is simply straw but, in systems with bare floors, some farmers have started scattering wooden sticks on the floor, which keep the hogs busy and allow them to apply their natural instinct for rooting and chewing without damaging the feeding equipment – or each other!

Leading Danish equipment maker Ikadan has launched a commercial variation of the chewing sticks. This features U-shaped plastic sleeves that can be screwed to pen walls. A 12x12-centimetre fencing post fits neatly into such sleeves with its end resting on the pen floor. The hogs gnaw on the end of a post and it slides lower as it is worn away.

Farmers testing the new porker plaything claim it takes weeks before replacement is required.

In the Netherlands, there's no legislation so far for material to allow hogs to express their natural rooting behaviour. But enterprising hog producers are already adding playthings to their pens to keep the animals occupied and cut down on aggression and biting.

One of the most spectacular ideas in this field is the use of brightly coloured "Skippy balls," half a metre in diameter, which are dangled on a string above respective pens at hog head height. Chewing is not possible with the Skippy balls, but the hogs still seem to be completely immersed in their new toys for long periods.

Mixing litters early: Big batches lose out on early performance
Danish hog producers were among the first to introduce mixing of litters 10 or more days before weaning in modern farrowing houses.

In first trials, post-weaning shock with weight gain depression, disease and injuries were all found to be reduced through early mixing, compared with traditional penning litters together at weaning. But building design and pen sizes limited this to just two or three litters at a time on most farms.

Now a Bavarian research institute is testing a farrowing house system that allows dividing walls between five farrowing pens to be removed so that the sows are still retained in their crates, but the 50 and more young piglets are free to mix and feed together. First trials were carried out with 75 farrowings and results were compared with those from litters in conventional single farrowing pens with piglet mixing at weaning and also in double pens for mixing of just two litters.

While the lifetime effect on feeder performance has still to be investigated, the mixed litters proved to have up to three per cent less weight gain during suckling than the double-litter pens and eight per cent less compared with single litter systems. 

The trials were carried out at the Grub State Institute for Agricultural Research and litters were mixed at 11 days after birth.

Fighting incidence between members of different litters was not affected by the multi-suckling approach, with aggression described as "mainly moderate" by supervising scientist Dr. Christina Jais. 

Piglets from other litters started wandering into other farrowing areas, with 10 per cent on day one of mixing rising to an average 33 per cent on day 15. On average through the trials, about 10 per cent of piglets were involved in milk stimulation with sows not their natural mother and about seven to eight per cent actually suckled sows other than their own.

This seems to have caused more interruptions during suckling. Suckling was interrupted three times more often with the five-litter models than in single litter pens. It is thought that reduced milk intake because of this is one reason for the daily liveweight gain (dlwg) of the five-litter model piglets being just an average 265 grams in one pen and 271 grams in another over the trial. The single litter pens recorded an average 287 grams dlwg and the double litter ones 277 grams. 

A plea for more international precision in pork labelling
A Europe-wide review of hog production systems is being launched this fall by the most powerful animal welfare organization in the European Union (EU), Britain's Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). "Rooting for Pigs" is to examine more closely the different on-farm hog production systems and recommend more precise labelling for the resultant pork in the stores.

The RSPCA says it will lobby within the EU for new legally required descriptions that give much more information about farming practices.

The program kicked off earlier this year when a consumer survey commissioned by the RSPCA revealed that only two per cent of respondents understood the current terms used on pork labelling, particularly descriptions such as  "free-range" or "outdoor reared."

Dr. Julia Wrathall, head of farm animal science with the association, complains that there are no industry-wide definitions for labelling how pork is produced, unlike the case with eggs or chicken meat.

"This survey also shows animal welfare is important to more than eight out of 10 people when they're out shopping, even in these hard economic times, and shoppers often seek out specifically-labelled products purely because they want to support certain farming practices."

The society has already started in the United Kingdom by urging supermarkets and other food stores to work with the British swine industry in establishing an initial voluntary labelling agreement for pork.

Cheaper boar semen sexing is on the way
The world's first low-cost, high-volume boar semen-sexing technology should be available in less than two years. This will allow swine breeders to pre-select semen for predominantly female offspring in the litter.

The new system is based simply on identification of sex-specific proteins on the surface of the sperm cells. These cells and their significance were unknown a few years ago. New technology has been developed to identify them so that X and Y chromosome cells can be automatically and rapidly separated.

An international project to develop more efficient boar semen sexing was only started three years ago. Now involved are the British biomedical research company Ovasort; Dansksvineproducktion, the Danish swine industry umbrella body for research and marketing; and the Norwegian-based international swine breeding organisation Norsvin.

Ovasort CEO Dr. Ian Cumming comments that research is completed and development towards a commercial system should now start. Next will come field trials and, in around two years, the Ovasort semen-sexing system should be ready for the market. The target is to achieve 75 per cent accuracy with semen-sexing.

The system is claimed to be considerably cheaper than present semen sexing and could not come at a better time in Europe, where the pressure on swine farmers either to stop castration of male feeding hogs or to use local or complete anesthetic for the operation is growing steadily.

Switzerland and Norway have already banned piglet castration without anesthetic and animal welfare organisations are currently calling for a stop in a number of other countries including, this fall, Belgium. The new system, which will produce what is termed male-enriched or female-enriched boar semen, will mean that the hog breeder can immediately avoid most of this hassle by choosing sexed semen which guarantees a litter containing mainly female offspring.

The method involves molecules binding together the identified female X-chromosome sperm cells so that male cells (Y-chromosome) can be filtered off.  If female-enriched boar semen is required, the agglutinated mass of female cells are separated out and incorporated straight into individual insemination doses.

The technique is also being developed for cattle and other farm livestock, according to Ovasort. BP