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1. Verispec DNA Traceability – PIC UK
   

2. Rescue Decks – F J Bosworth & Sons

3. Infrared heating for the future – Radecor

4. Batch weighing: an essential management procedure – Alexander & Angell (Farms) Ltd.

5. Weaned piglet handling system – Fawley Farms Ltd.

6. Piloting a system to identify labour use, cost and productivity – Delta Innovation Ltd.

7. Establishing benchmarks and case studies for labour efficiency – Delta Innovation Ltd.

8. Water Quality Improvements – Skimble Crown Ltd

9. Outdoor individual sow feed hoppers – Compton Pigs
10. Growth maximisation study – D.C. & R.J. Allen & Partners
11. Moving pigs with handling boards – Wayland Farms

Verispec DNA Traceability – PIC UK

Verispec is a technique that can provide highly accurate traceability via DNA marker technology. The Verispec technique can allow a piglet, carcase or a retail pack or pork to be traced to a specific Sire or Dam. This can provide product traceability to genotype, supply system or unit if accurate sampling is provided.

The objective of the BPEX funded Verispec project was to demonstrate the accuracy of the technique and its ability to be utilised at a commercial level. The trial strategy was designed to satisfy the objective via three specific stages.

Stage 1
Demonstrate on a small, controlled system that the Verispec technique is accurate
Stage 2
Demonstrate that Verispec can be utilised on a larger scale on a large production system
Demonstrate that Verispec has the ability to identify between source units
Demonstrate that Verispec can identify sires within a line
Stage 3
Demonstrate the ability of Verispec to provide traceability throughout the supply chain

Stage 1
Phase 1 was carried out in June 2009, where all boars supplying semen (AI) to a specific unit over a three month period were DNA sampled. Chaser boars used on the unit were not DNA sampled during this phase. The pigs from this unit, along with pigs from a control unit, were DNA sampled post slaughter.

The initial results showed that 100% of the control samples did not match any of the known sires, therefore Verispec could identify pigs that were not from that specific unit. However, only 90% of the test samples matched the known sires recorded. This left 10% of the progeny that were derived from the specific unit but did not match the known sires. The 10% of pigs that did not match the sires supplied via AI could have been sired by the chaser boars on farm. Therefore stage 1 was been duplicated (Stage 1a) and all boars were sampled by taking individual hair samples for each chaser boar along with the recorded tissue sample from the AI sires.

Stage 1a showed again that Verispec could identify pigs that were not from a known sire, with 100% of control samples not matching with the known sires. In Stage 1a, 90% of the test samples matched with a known sire and so were proven to be from the specific unit. The two test samples that did not meet the requirements for a positive result showed very strong links to a chaser boar recorded via a hair sample. The low reading was due to the quality of the DNA found in the hair sample from the chaser boar. The low quality of that sample resulted in a lower number of matches and therefore a positive result was impossible.

Stage 2
In Stage 2, DNA samples were taken from the designated boar pool of PIC 327 sires, along with hair samples form the 15 individual sows served on each unit. This created a reference group of sires for the supply chain and a reference group of sows for each individual unit. The progeny from these services were tagged at birth to ensure traceability through the finishing system and during slaughter. DNA samples were taken from a random selection of carcases within the supply chain. DNA samples were then taken from control carcases from a different supply chain, but also using standard PIC 327 sires.

Stage 2 showed that Verispec could again identify carcases that were not sired by one of the known sires, therefore not being part of the specific supply chain. Stage 2 also showed that Verispec was able to differentiate between sires of the same line/breed, as the control carcases were also sired by PIC 327 boars. 100% of the carcases from the supply chain were matched to the Verispec boar pool. In addition 100% of the control carcases were not matched to any of the boars with the Verispec boar pool.

Stage 3
In Stage 3, DNA samples were taken from all AI sires and potential chaser boar sires from a specific supply chain. DNA samples were then taken from retail packs off the shelves in the specific retail store exactly 53 weeks post service, to ensure the correct sires were sampled. Control samples were taken from a different product/supply chain from the same retail brand.

Stage 3 showed that Verispec was able to identify pork meat direct from the retail shelves from a specific supply chain. Stage 3 also showed that Verispec was able to validate this by identifying pork meat that was not from the specific supply chain.

This project has shown that the Verispec technique is 100% accurate at identifying carcases and pork meat that is not from a specific group of sires. This project has shown that a highly accurate logistical programme must be in place to utilise the Verispec technique fully and that there are two key areas that must be accurately measured and recorded to facilitate Verispec:

Therefore when managed correctly, Verispec is able to identify carcases and pork meat that is from, or that is not from, a specific supply chain or production unit.

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Rescue Decks F J Bosworth & Sons

The object of Rescue Decks is to ‘rescue’ piglets that might otherwise die and improve the overall efficiency of the breeding herd by rearing more pigs per sow per year.

Genetic advances in pig breeding have increased litter size, leading to greater nutritional demands on sows and gilts to rear these extra pigs. Larger litters of piglets are often linked with higher levels of pre-weaning piglet mortality, due in part to increased competition within the litter for viable teats at the udder.

Stockpeople often practise cross-fostering, even shunt-fostering whole litters, after colostrum intake to try to rear surplus piglets. Keeping sows back for longer lactations reduces the farrowing index and moving whole litters can upset all-in all-out farrowing rooms, to the detriment of pig unit health control. Also, weaning pigs that are less nutritionally developed than others in the batch can lead to problems post-weaning.

A 10 deck system was installed at F J Bosworth & Sons to evaluate the system for the benefit of the wider pig industry. The Rescue Deck system raised numbers reared by up to 0.56 pigs per litter over the course of the trial period. The 270 productive sow herd has averaged 640 farrowings per year over the last four years on a weekly batch farrowing system. If the results of the trial period are replicated for a full year, an extra 358 piglets will be weaned by the Rescue Deck system, almost seven extra pigs weaned per week.

It became apparent that Rescue Decks are very effective at reducing piglet mortality in a herd of prolific sows. The best results were achieved by placing good pigs in the decks and rounding up the smalls for suckling, usually on a gilt for best teat presentation, size and functionality. Overall quality of weaned pigs was improved by using Rescue Decks because there were less piglets suckling on ineffective back teats, particularly on older parity sows.
Sow condition at weaning was visibly improved to the extent that mid-gestation feed levels have now been reduced for sows.

There are two key points to be aware of. Rescue Decks are not a substitute for poor nutritional management of farrowing sows. Before using Rescue Decks, the sows’ lactations were optimised by using dietary electrolyte balance through mineral supplementation to enhance the release of Calcium ions into the sow’s blood circulation, and feed levels were changed slightly for a better lactation. The second point is that stockmanship and farrowing house management have to be first rate to get the best from the Rescue Deck system. As always attention to detail is imperative for best results and this is particularly important in hygiene and proper and regular cleaning of the milk line system.

It is also important to remember that under Red Tractor assurance no plasma based feed products can be used.

Video

An overview of the Rescue Deck system on Stuart Bosworth’s unit. The object of Rescue Decks is to ‘rescue’ piglets that might otherwise die and improve the overall efficiency of the breeding herd by rearing more pigs per sow per year. Click here to view the video.

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Infrared heating for the future – Radecor

The challenge for the project was to establish and then demonstrate that infra red heating can benefit UK pig producers and, in doing so, become a recognised method of supplying safe and economic heat to pig buildings, particularly in the nursery.

Infrared technology works by heating the pigs, rather than the air. The highly sensitive thermostat is more accurate and therefore more efficient than standard thermostats. The potential benefits for pig producers of using infra red heating are significant savings on energy costs and, because the panels do not cause dust circulation in the air, the risk of pig respiratory problems may be reduced.

A final report is available from BPEX on request.

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Batch weighing: an essential management procedure – Alexander & Angell (Farms) Ltd.

The basis of this project was demonstrating the value of weighing pigs regularly as they move through the system. The producer involved took inspiration from the poultry industry, where everything that moves is measured and weighed.

The process is simple, with no big capital investment needed; while the pigs are being moved eg between the nursery, growing and finishing stages, the trailer is allowed to rest on a set of mobile weighing pads, the weight is recorded and then the pigs are unloaded; the process adds no more than four minutes per batch.

By weighing the pigs at each stage, it enabled the producer to identify where the pigs were falling behind and take appropriate action. He has since been able to improve growth rates and the pigs are reaching slaughter weight in the required time frame. This project demonstrates the value of regularly weighing pigs in batches.

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Weaned piglet handling system – Fawley Farms Ltd.

The aim of this project was to devise a method of minimising the stress on piglets at the same time as improving working conditions for staff while piglets were being handled, for example at vaccination.

Following a number of prototypes, a piglet sorter built from stockboard was developed and fixed to the yard. The piglets move into the sorter from the trailer in groups of 10-12. They enter into pen one, where they receive their first vaccination and are marked, and then move into the second pen to receive a second vaccination and different colour mark. Before being released from the sorter the piglers are checked and if necessary removed for any medical treatments.

The system has the following benefits:

• Piglets never have to be picked up
• The pens have drop-down flaps to allow better access by stock people, enabling them to remain in a normal standing position while vaccinating
• Piglets are at a more suitable height for observation
• The system can be easily cleaned
• It can be put under shelter in bad weather
• The system faciliates quick moving and handling of piglets as someone on the trailer moves groups of piglets up to the sorter while two batches are being treated
• Vet and med equipment can be set out ready without risk of being disturbed by animals and doesn’t need to be moved around

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Piloting a system to identify labour use, cost and productivity – Delta Innovation Ltd.

This project investigated benchmarking the cost of labour for particular tasks in a bid to improve efficiency. The technique was originally developed for use in the dairy industry but has now been applied to pig production. The idea is to illustrate efficient labour use, cutting back on the time taken to do tasks, allowing more time to be spent with the pigs.

The data collected from the pilot farms indicated that there was a significant potential for increases in labour efficiency across pig units; for example during the initial pilot on eight breeding units, the notional labour costs per finished pig ranged from under £2 to more than £11! Scaling up from potential weekly savings to annual savings, differences of at least one full-time equivalent were seen, even across similar units.

Whilst in some cases the causes of this variation were clear, for example in relation to feeding systems, in others it was less so. The next step of this project is to get more producers to record time spent working on specific named tasks on their farms so that there is enough data to set standard benchmarks.

 

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Establishing benchmarks and case studies for labour efficiency – Delta Innovation Ltd.

The first part of the study (outlined above) piloted a system for recording and analysing labour use on pig units. This study was intended to develop that methodology further, and to examine a broader range of units to ascertain benchmar figures for key tasks.

Data collected in this study indicates that the average total cost of labour for pig production is in the region of £8.36 per finished pig (based for ease of calculation on wage costs of £7.50 per hour), with just over half of this attributable to breeding herd tasks and just over half attributable to growing and finishing tasks. However, this average masks a huge variation in the labour efficiency of pig production, with the most efficient breeding herds demonstrating labour costs of £2.99 per piglet weaned compared to the least efficient with costs of £6.06. Similar variation was seen within finishing herds, with labour costs for those units taking pigs from weaning through to slaughter ranging from £2.50 to £5.50 per 100kg liveweight gain.

A full report is available from BPEX.

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Water Quality Improvements – Skimble Crown Ltd

 

Type of project: Innovation Fund

Project duration: 6 months

The objective of this trial was to treat the whole farm through a water treatment system and to see if it would help resolve poor growth in the flat deck area of the pig unit which is linked to a multipathogenic problem.

• The quality of water from the bore hole, tea room and flat decks was tested
• Water was treated with Di-O-Clean, which is a  product that removes biofilm, prevents regrowth and removes deposits of iron and manganese from the drinking water system
• Water from each location was re-tested after the treatment
• An improvement in water intake by the piglets in the flat deck was noted by using Barn Report to monitor consumption
• An improvement in feed intake of 30kg per sow per lactation was also evident; although some of this will be attributed to building the sows up sooner
• The contaminated bore hole water was successfully treated.

This project demonstrates the advantages ofcleaning water, especially for improving the appetite of lactating sows and increasing water intake for first stage weaners. It also establishes the cost of cleaning water at approximately 12p per finished pig.

 

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Outdoor individual sow feed hoppers – Compton Pigs

Type of project: Innovation Fund

Project duration: 9 months

The aim of this project was to trial an innovative feed hopper design to ad lib feed outdoor lactating sows. The main aim was to reduce feed waste through vermin and birds as well as reducing wastage from feeding sows on the ground. There should also be a reduction in overall labour usage due to mechanical filling of the hopper being required only every 4 -5 days.

Feed usage in farrowing pens with ad lib hoppers was compared with current on-floor feed usage in identical farrowing pens. Litter weights were recorded at weaning as was time utilisation for feeding using the two comparable systems.

Results

• The trial ran for twelve batches from May 2012 until the end of January 2013 
• The most immediate improvement observed was the time spent feeding the individual sows, with hoppers only needing replenishing twice a week
• The amount of food saved across the trial period was around 13kg per gilt

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Growth maximisation study – D.C. & R.J. Allen & Partners

 

Type of project: Innovation Fund

Project duration: 12 months

Click here to view video

This project is trialling two specially designed weighing crates linked to a PC, one placed in a weaner pen (8-25kg) and the other one placed in a grower pen (25-55kg) and then subsequently a finisher pen, to monitor the real time daily growth, showing performance fluctuations from ration changes or other pen stresses.

Through monitoring pig growth on a real time basis the trial aims to assess how the changes in ration affect daily growth throughout the three stages of production,  enabling rations and feeding strategies to be adapted accordingly. 

Overall the trial will evaluate novel weighing technology to see if it offers real benefit to the industry.

Tom Allen is hoping to confirm some of the benefits in the coming months. “We already weigh our growing pigs when they enter and leave each stage but this only gives an average weight for the group. We wanted more accurate monitoring of growth performance to highlight where exactly any issues or fluctuations in performance were happening.”

The pigs go through the scales up to three times a day, of their own accord. Using an automatic spray marker on the scales, Tom has been able to check that it is not just the same few pigs being weighed repeatedly. Around 90% of pigs are using the scales, so while the system will never be 100% accurate, it gives a good representation.

Tom suspected that there was an issue with feed rations in the finisher stage but couldn’t be certain. The data from the scales have shown that pigs were averaging the same daily growth rate throughout the whole finisher period. He said: “We would like to see this going up, not standing still, so we have made adjustments to the finisher rations.

“We have also noticed from the graphs that the weaners do better once they have switched fully from creep onto liquid feed, so we’ve reduced the weight at changeover to 14kg. Another tweak we’ve made is to reduce the starting temperture in the weaner pens from 30°C to 28°C.

“Now we can watch the graphs and monitor whether these changes are actually making a difference. From what I’ve seen, the potential savings could pay back the cost of investment quite quickly. The information we’re getting is helping us make both quick and effective decisions on changes.” Each weighing crate costs between £2000 and £4000, depending on the size and are supplied in the UK by Schippers.

Read more in Farmers Weekly article: Weigh scales help boost pig performance

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Moving pigs with handling boards – Wayland Farms

Type of project: Field trial

To assess the need for handling boards on pig units and to investigate why they are used with more success on some units than others. Three separate areas of the farm were considered:

• Weaned sow area
• Weaner pig area
• Farrowing area

The main observations from this field trial were:

• A central handle is important
• Keep the number of indentations and cavities to a minimum to reduce the amount of mud/muck sticking to the boards and making them easier to keep clean
• Boards need to be robust and lightweight
• Storage is key – the boards need to be easy for staff to grab and safely stored so they don’t get damaged
• Abundance of boards – there need to be sufficient boards in convenient and practical locations

Although every stockperson has their own preferences on board size, and the most appropriate board will differ depending on the area of the farm, what needs to be highlighted is the time and stress saving to both animal and staff when handling boards are used correctly.

 

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Page last updated 2 September, 2013