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Western Livestock Price Insurance Program continues to see strong uptake by producers

 
Producers in Saskatchewan got some good news last month when the provincial government restored the PST exemption for premiums paid to agricultural insurance policies, including the Western Livestock Price Insurance Program.
 
Jodie Griffin, the Saskatchewan Co-ordinator for the program, says this move will definitely help producers cut their costs.
 
"Premiums are looking pretty decent, but it's still a cost for these producers, and you put that PST on top of it, and it definitely had a pinch and a feel for them," she said. "It's excellent news that our Premier delivered, is to have that no longer available."
 
Rebates on the PST paid on WLPIP premiums since August 1st of last year will be made available in the near future.
 
Griffin adds producer uptake for the program continues to be strong, adding their calf program has nearly matched the record participation from 2017 already this year.
 
Griffin, says so far they are seeing about same participation for their calf program as their record numbers from last year.
 
"That'll be great. I hope we break it," she said. "We did last year on the calf program. We estimated that we insurance about 22 percent of the calf crop. I hope we see that at least if not more, so yes participation has been good."
 
Source : Discoverestevan

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US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”