Pig welfare, feed management and health issues like PEDv, PRRSv and antibiotics. They were all touched on during the latest edition of the Banff Pork Seminar, held in Banff, AB, Canada, 12-14 January.
With almost 800 attendants, the Banff Pork Seminar was held in one of the most beautiful venues in Banff, the Fairmont Hotel.
Consumers lack knowledge about improvements
Among the most relevant speakers were Temple Grandin – 'How consumers view animal welfare' – presenting some very interesting facts about the lack of knowledge consumers have about the improvements achieved in the last years in the industry, in particular in abattoirs, being young people the group with higher lack of basic knowledge of animals and agriculture (she presented data from some surveys in UK where 50% of young adults could not connect pigs with bacon).
She highlighted the position where for them, values matter, in particular related to animal welfare and the trend to trust more in farmers (53%) than in food companies (17%). Finally she encouraged the livestock industry to promote a positive respond by means of the social media that they routinely use instead of do nothing or just react to activists.
Market weight and feed prices
Mike Tokach presented some facts about 'Optimizing feed and farm management to market conditions', including the difficult dilemma between efficiency and throughput, some tools to decide better which is the best market weight based on feed and pig prices and how to manage sow inventory in different market (not volatile) situations.
He addressed some nutrients that influence feed intake and growth rate without having a great impact on caloric efficiency in different economic situations, avoiding the temptation of decrease protein and lysine levels when market hog prices are low. He concluded that when pork production is profitable maximising throughput and weight will be the choice but when not profitable, efficiency is the driver.
Using dietary carbohydrates
Ruurd Zijlstra presented some recommendations for 'Alternative feedstuffs and feeding programmes for nursery pigs' showing the good response of piglets to oat groats instead of barley for a better feed gain.
He concluded that feed cost pressure might be more severe for protein than for energy and the advantages of using dietary carbohydrates to control gut health and performance.
Breeding issues in Canada
Since Canadian industry has decided to move to group housed sows, some lectures focused on showing that high productivity can be achieved with this system, as Larry Coleman presented, reviewing factors such as inaccurate feeding, social stress, training difficulties, heat detection and general sow management.
Ron Ketchem presented a good review of 'Key indicators of breeding herd productivity' by means of benchmarking techniques and time-series analysis.
In the biosecurity session, Doug MacDougald held a presentation titled 'Canada's response to PED and what is next for emerging disease strategy'. He summed up some practical cases and had a plan for comprehensive and sustainable swine disease strategy for the country.
Biosecurity and risk management
Rick Peters presented a good lecture on 'Biosecurity and risk management in transportation' including the most relevant factors, such as drivers, trailers, yard and on farm-biosecurity, wash and drying bays and under-carriage wash. He concluded that biosecurity goes beyond of physical aspects and must include training and education and good communication among companies and institutions.
Source : AlbertaPork