SASKATCHEWAN PORK SYMPOSIUM
A Look into Group Housing
It's a particularly contentious topic in the pork industry in Canada - gestation, or individual stalls for sows versus what's referred to as 'group housing'.
On Tuesday November 19, 2013 Dr Sandra Edwards, of England's Newcastle University, shared her extensive knowledge on the subject with the Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium audience. The list of both the pros and cons of the various housing systems are extensive, but with current legislation in place in the United Kingdom banning individual sow stalls, the issue is becoming increasingly important here at home.
Edwards, a BA (Hons) and professor of agriculture at Newcastle, grew up on a small, mixed farm in eastern England. She has worked for over thirty years with cattle and pig housing, welfare, nutrition and management, focusing on the multi-disciplinary interactions between nutrition, reproduction, behavior and welfare in pigs.
Group housing for sows is defined through the evolution of housing each sow initially an individual stall, and then moving them into open, or grouped environments.
Addressing the morning conference crowd at the Saskatoon Inn, Edwards cut straight to the chase. "How do you make group housing work?" she asked the audience.
In the UK, Edwards home-base, a complete ban on the use of individual sow stalls has been in place since 1999. European Union legislation has applied the same rules to all newly built, rebuilt or newly commissioned pork-production buildings since 2003. The changes were primarily put it place after pressure from animal welfare groups vying for "compassion" in global farming.
"We've learned a lot of lessons that I'm happy to share with you today," said Edwards.
One of the most pressing questions Edwards asked the Pork Symposium audience to consider was who is primarily impacted by facilitating group sow housing properly, and why they are undertaking this significant shift in pig farming in the first place.
"We have the consumer, who are wanting safe, low cost, ethical pork products," said Edwards. "They want to feel comfortable with the pork they buy to feed their families."
Next she addressed the needs of the producers - affordable capital cost; the flexibility to convert to group housing facilities, since most are not going to build brand new buildings; the ease of management; good sow performance coupled with appropriate animal welfare.
"Thirdly, we have the sow, the need to fit the pig's biological needs," explained Edwards.
"The modern pig has come a long way from the wild boar, but there's a starting point to understanding what our mom pigs need and need to do. Their appearance has been changed by breeding, the docility has been changed by breeding. When we look at the evolution of the wild boar - its primary focus was constantly foraging for food. The message remains today: pigs are totally food focused."
Wild boars run in natural maternal groups - two to six sows and their offspring. These are long lasting associations in which aggression seldom occurs in family group. Strangers are recognized by smell. Unfamiliar pigs fight for dominance, which is exactly the same behavior exhibited in pig farming environments today.
So what is of primary importance for the sow? A sound nutritional environment, said Edwards, coupled with feeding without competition, and until the sow feels satiated. Negative, often aggressive sow behaviors are exhibited when they instinctively, in a group, begin expressing foraging behavior when hungry.
"The group housing's physical environment must contain a separate functional area for hygienic purposes, conform thermally, be secure, and contain non-injurious flooring that will not injure the pigs when fighting, or simply walking on the floor," said Edwards.
When it comes to group housing there are a variety of choices to address the feeding system, floor type and bedding, space allowance and arrangements, group size and stability, to name a few.
"The three main considerations for housing are managing feeding, managing aggression and managing reproduction," said Edwards. "Getting the feeding right is the key to making a group housing system work."
Floor feeding in group housing situations, according to Edwards, provides a simple, flexible and cost-effective solution for producers. The flipside, however, equals variability in sow intake which leads to aggression and those inevitable 10 per cent 'losers sows': sows who have given up on the system, have stopped competing, gave up on the food, inevitably come into farrow in poor conditions and are never going to thrive.
Edwards says the key to floor feeding management is good feed distribution, and even-sized groups.
"If you look at the number of fights breaking out simply by the number of scratches on the sows, they almost double in seriousness from poorly managed floor feeding," said Edwards.
The other side of the coin is individual feeding stalls - the best housing system, says Edwards.
"You can't beat the precision of feeding, low aggression separate functional areas. Of course there are cons - space, a cost that can be 60 per cent higher than group areas, the increased labour," she explained. "If you are absolutely going to ensure every sow gets the precise amount of feed, you're going to need to do it by hand."
There is a middle ground to the debate, according to Edwards. "The halfway measure is a cubicle systems combined with free access stalls," she said. On a positive note, there's less space which reduces cost, but less space when they are in the group setting equals bullying. Cubicles also require thermoregulation. What's key here is avoiding mixing the sows in limited space, ensuring you have even sizing in groups, and functional rear gates."
Brian Andries, from the Prairie Swine Centre, comes by his Saskatchewan agricultural roots honestly, growing up on a mixed farm in southern Saskatchewan. In 1973, he attended the University of Saskatchewan and obtained a B.Sc. majoring in Biology, then started at Prairie Swine Centre Inc. in 1979 as a stockperson and worked his way up to manager of operations of the centre in 1992, where he's been ever since.
"The original facility started in 1979 with one nucleus barn with fifty sows, from top producers in Saskatchewan," said Andries. "Originally we brought out thirty-four sows and nine boars. It took about a year to fill up the other two barns. At that time we had ten production staff - three in each barns and the manager."
The years that followed saw a reduction in staff. "In the last fifteen years we've changed genetics four times," explained Andries.
The objectives of the Prairie Swine Centre are clear, some of which are as follows:
"To increase net income for pork producers through improved nutrition, this includes the development of feeding programs which emphasize economic efficiency, meat quality, and market value, also understanding feed and fibre sources and the modifications of these to meet the needs of the pig, changing economics and opportunities to favorably impact meat quality,...as well as improving animal well-being by developing and modifying housing systems, animal management practices, and health of the pig." •
— By Tammy Robert
Swine Nutrition
When Dr. Mario Ramirez, Director of Nutrition for Alberta-based Gowan's Feed Consulting took to the Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium stage to discuss what kind of nutritional disasters the pork industry can and should avoid, he admitted he wasn't entirely sure where to begin.
That said, with the responsibility of overseeing the nutritional needs of more than five million hogs per year both in Canada and abroad, and with more than 20-years' experience in the industry, Ramirez is certainly the undisputed expert to turn to on the topic.
Ramirez first turned the audience's attention to the most implausible, but most drastic scenario in pork industry disasters - mass death of pigs. "Is it possible to kill pigs today with nutrition? Yes, but you have to try hard," he said. "I have only seen it once in my career and don't want to see it again. It was cross-contamination of two feeds and somebody made a big mistake, but this is catastrophic and not realistic. It doesn't and won't necessarily happen in Canada."
Expensive raw materials were also on Ramirez's list of nutritional fiasco's. "Barley prices have dropped in the last five months," he said. "But it's about your attitude towards risk and exposure to market force." Ramirez listed the need for flexibility in responding to unforeseen events, as well as taking the time to devote to monitoring the market and managing risk as practical strategies for mitigating risk on raw material costs.
Ramirez cited the laundry list of organizations who determine the nutritional diet specifications for pigs: universities; research centres; genetic companies; nutrition companies; nutrition consultants; and ultimately, the producer with his or her own ideas
"There is a huge difference between universities and nutritional, genetic companies on certain amino acid recommendations for grow and finish pigs," said Ramirez. "You know your pigs best. The wrong choice could be disastrous. You need to know what your pigs need to perform, and feed them accordingly...It's a two way discussion between consumer and manufacturer."
"Universities and institutes are always doing trials on how high we can go using different ingredients," said Ramirez. "We need to know what the highest level of ingredients bring us the highest return on investment."
When it comes to pork market requirements, Ramirez says the market is virtually insatiable. "They are always asking for more and more and more," said Ramirez. "They want a specific carcass weight, you want dressing percentage. Some markets ask for marbling, iodine value. Meat colour - some are very picky. They want shelf life, organic meat, vegetarian fed-pigs. All these cost money."
"Feed additives - there are so many: growth promoters, enzymes, acidifiers, antioxidants, organic minerals, essential oils," continued Ramirez. "Do they work, sure. Do you need them? Not necessarily. Make your selections always thinking about the maximum return on investment."
Ramirez had some final words of wisdom on nutrition for producers:
• Get involved in the ingredient market,
• Select the optimal diet specification,
• Be flexible in the selection of ingredients,
• Accept some risks on inclusion levels,
• Minimize the number of restrictions,
• Be open-minded to use alternative ingredients,
• Ensure good feed processing,
• Get professional advice. •
— By Tammy Robert