NCERA89: Swine Production Management to Enhance Animal Welfare
(Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group)
Status: Inactive/Terminating
NCERA89: Swine Production Management to Enhance Animal Welfare
Duration: 10/01/2006 to 09/30/2011
Administrative Advisor(s):
NIFA Reps:
Non-Technical Summary
Statement of Issues and Justification
Pork production systems continue to evolve in the United States and globally as they have for decades. Evolution in the swine industry is driven by the development, evaluation, and implementation of new technologies. The progression from development to implementation of a new technology cannot be completed without the middle step, evaluation. New technologies can be evaluated in various ways by many different entities within the swine industry. Large, coordinated pork production systems can evaluate a technology within their production system and determine whether the technology is valuable. Typically, these results are not public information. Commercial companies can evaluate management practices and technologies on their client's operations but the results may be viewed as biased or not relevant to producers in other regions of the country. In addition, independent pork producers can evaluate a technology on their operation but often do not have the expertise, time, or equipment to conduct a scientifically valid study.
The NCERA-89 committee focuses on applied swine management issues related to animal welfare and performance that provide an unbiased evaluation of new technologies for all pork producers. These research projects focus on all aspects of the swine industry from the sow to the finishing pig. The committee is very proactive toward identifying the critical swine production, management, and animal welfare issues in the swine industry that require and clearly benefit from a multi-state research approach. The NCERA-89 committee works more on the basis of exchanging ideas or issues and how the committee might address these through collaborative research and extension projects. The committee discusses numerous swine industry-related issues that need rapid attention, protocols are developed to solve these issues, and conducted on a regional basis without being restricted to specific experimental designs.
Committee members represent a broad discipline base with specific technical and research training in nutrition, facility design and ventilation, economics, animal behavior, and genetics. The variety of disciplines and viewpoints of the committee members allows thorough understanding of the complex production issues. Cooperative, coordinated research among experiment stations permits evaluation of technologies in different research units located in various parts of the U.S. and Canada. In addition, the majority of committee members are experienced extension educators that are actively involved in state and national educational program development and delivery.
The NCERA-89 committee has a long history of conducting successful cooperative research and reporting these research results to stakeholder groups. Much of the research findings reported by the NCERA-89 committee have been implemented in the United States and globally such as the recommended pig space requirement for outstanding animal performance which is supported by many welfare and pork organizations; the feeding management practices of lactating sows using a stepwise process; the utilization of better designed feeders and drinkers that maximize normal animal behavior; the water management and usage recommendations of pigs; fiber utilization in sow diets to enhance animal welfare; and the effectiveness of proper pig mixing and sorting during the growing period. These are just a few of the science-based research findings that the NCERA-89 committee has reported that changed many management practices in the swine industry. The committee continues to challenge the industry and producers to be better animal stewards. This all happens in an enjoyable, thought-provoking manner that stimulates committee members and fosters cooperation among states and countries.
Objectives
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The NCERA-89 committees goal is to provide clientele with unbiased scientific research on current and futuristic swine production management practices and to disseminate the research findings in a manner that encourages a systematic process to assess adaptation of new production management strategies or technologies. These new technologies will result in improved animal welfare, care, handling or housing of the pig to enable opportunities for economic gain and greater societal responsibility in pork production.
Procedures and Activities
Key Research Objectives:
1. Evaluate either mixing pigs or maintaining pen integrity during the move from nursery to finishing on performance and space requirement.
2. To determine the effects of heavyweight pig removal and remixing on performance.
3. To determine an optimal pig performance and energy consumption level for a reduced nocturnal nursery temperature regimen that will optimize pig performance and energy usage to maximize profitability for pork producers.
4. Assess the welfare and well-being of pigs across various k values for space allocation during the nursery and grow-finish phases.
5. Validate the break point of the k value for nursery and grow-finish pigs using behavioral, physiological, performance, and economic response criteria.
6. To determine the effect of a gradual decrease in feed intake pre-farrowing on sow and litter performance during lactation.
Key Extension Objectives:
1. Provide educational learning environments for pork producers, owners, employees, veterinarians, and financial institutions.
2. Educational opportunities will be developed across the region using computer technologies, webpages, electronic resources, phone bridges, ITV connections, and time-honored face-to-face meetings in workshops or small group meetings.
Experimental Design
Committee members are best positioned to cooperate on nursery and growing-finishing pig studies. This has been and will likely be a large portion of the cooperative research conducted by this committee in the future. We have developed a standardized template for conducting these studies. Typically, one committee member assumes leadership for development of the final protocol that will be implemented at all participating stations. In addition, the study coordinator collates data from all stations, conducts statistical analysis of data, and forms the initial interpretation of the results which is reported to the committee for discussion. Ultimately, the project leader prepares abstracts and full-length papers for publication. Below are some of the salient points contained within our research protocol template.
- All participating experiment stations must conduct a minimum of two replications.
- Diets meet or exceed all NRC (1998) nutrient requirements and will be provided according to the recommendations of each station. Local grain and premixes are used.
- Performance criteria to be measured are determined based on the scope of the experiment. Extensive pig behavior and welfare assessments are included when sufficient extramural funding is secured. If extramural funding is not available, more cursory measures of pig welfare are included in the study.
- All laboratory and behavioral analyses are performed at a common location.
- Statistical analyses use a model that includes station, treatment, replicate, and the appropriate interactions.
Similar standardization is attempted for experiments involving breeding swine. Due to decreased availability of facilities and fewer experiments with breeding swine, our template is not as fully developed as our template for the growing pig. However, usually a minimum of 48 sows per participating station is required. Other management criteria are determined based on the objective of the research project.
Success Stories and Accomplishments since Last Approval
* Pig and product uniformity have value at the production, packer, processor and retail sectors. Strategies to manage variation in pig weight throughout the finishing stage of production and in particular at the time of sale for harvest are needed at the production level. The NCR-89 committee conducted multi-state research focused on removal and remixing of heavy weight market hogs to understand the impact on overall growth, efficiency, and uniformity measures. Results suggest that variation in growth within a pen is normally distributed and variation as a proportion of the mean (CV statistic) regardless of management practices implemented to reduce within pen variation, and there appears to be a biological constraint that does not allow variation to be reduced under 10%. Additional research to better understand the biological and physiological complexity of growth and maturation will allow the identification of new management approaches to enhance uniformity and ultimately increase opportunities for profit throughout the pork chain. This effort directly addresses research objectives 2, 4, and 5 listed above.
* Solicitation of extramural funding has been a priority of the NCERA-89 committee in an effort to enhance the research opportunities and effectiveness. Several grants have been written and submitted to various organizations. Unfortunately, while no direct grant funding has been secured, the ideas and research sponsoring agencies have suggested continued efforts to secure funds in upcoming calls for research.
* Ventilation Short Courses have been conducted in six states representing over 80% of the hogs marketed in the United States with plans to build a model ventilation house for states east of the Mississippi River and North Carolina. These courses were developed and conducted by NCERA-89 committee members. Evaluations filled out by producers attending the course indicate that management practices learned would save them at least $2.00 per head marketed. Continued educational efforts in the area are anticipated by committee members. This effort directly supports our goal of bridging the gap between science and the farm.
* Recent NCR-89 data (JAS 79:1967-1972) indicated that when pigs are mixed into new social groups following the nursery phase, space restrictions during the grow-finish phase result in a decrease in daily feed and daily gain. However, if the social group remained intact during the move from nursery to grow-finish, space restrictions during the grow-finish phase had no effect on daily feed or daily gain. If maintaining social hierarchy (pen integrity) during the move from nursery to grow-finish alters the response to space allocation, this could have a tremendous impact on producer profitability, as well as redefining animal welfare implications and recommendations. Wean-to-finish production systems rely on maintenance of pen integrity from weaning to slaughter. Currently, space allocation recommendations for wean-to-finish are based on data sets derived from nursery moved to grow-finish data sets. Its possible that the maintenance of social hierarchy common to wean-to-finish production systems alters the response to space allocation in a similar manner to that hypothesized for nursery moved to grow-finish. Therefore the objective of the research project entitled Maintaining Pen Integrity on Response to Grow-Finish Space Allocation is to determine the effect of maintaining social hierarchy (pen integrity) on space requirements for growing-finishing pigs reared in conventional nurseries and moved to grow-finish facilities.
* Cooperative research (JAS 79:2770-2775) from the NCERA-89 committee evaluated the effect of restricting nipple drinker water flow from 700 mL/min to 70 mL/min in order to reduce total water usage. The project utilized 236 litters from six stations. The committee reported that efforts to reduce water usage by restricting flow through nipple drinkers to less than 700 mL/min should be approached with caution. Inadequate water supply increases sow weight loss during lactation which compromises reproductive performance. Proper drinking water availability and control of environmental temperature are important for optimal animal well-being and performance. Further research with sow feed intake pre-farrowing is being evaluated to monitor the incidence of hypogalactia and litter weaning weight.
* Currently, committee researchers are progressing on an experiment associated with out-of-feed events that occur in the finishing stage of production and monitoring the effects of the events on pig performance, physiological status, and social interactions. Purdue University and USDA collaborators (Pajor and Marchant-Ford) described research findings in an abstract presented in the summer of 2005 and the Annual ASAS meetings. The abstract reported the impact of out-of-feed events on blood parameters of the pigs and was a direct result of planning efforts conducted at the annual meeting of the NCERA-89 group in the fall of 2004. This project has important implications for animal welfare. By documenting the welfare and performance effects of commercial out-of-feed events, we can alert producers to the negative influences. Once producers understand these detrimental effects, there is a teachable moment in which we can influence positive changes in management of commercial swine production units which will directly improve the welfare of pigs.
* Annual meetings of the NCERA-89 committee are hosted by member universities in an effort to increase the awareness of facilities, availability of new technologies, develop industry contacts, meet potential research collaborators, and obtain hands-on observations of the pork industry. However, the committee has not ignored the global nature of swine production and applied research, and has also included Canadian counterparts in both research planning and implementation. We have also developed an intellectual collaboration with Dutch scientists by hosting a researcher from Wageningen, The Netherlands at our 2003 annual meeting. These international approaches and collaborative efforts strengthen the position of our committee as we strive to meet the needs of our clientele.
Expected Outcomes and Impacts
- Maintaining pen integrity when moving pigs from nursery to finishing facilities has no beneficial effect on pig growth performance.
- There is normal weight variation within a pen of pigs due to social hierarchy that cannot be improved with strategies for removal and remixing of heavy weight finishing pigs prior to slaughter in order to improve pig uniformity and optimization returns on pigs marketed. The committee concludes from this research that sorting is not effective in reducing body weight variation at slaughter; therefore, producers can eliminate costly, laborious sorting of pigs. Pig welfare is improved since animals are not unnecessarily mixed mid-way through the growing period.
- Definition of optimal daytime and nocturnal ambient temperature settings for pigs in conventional nurseries from initial population to removal. This research will provide timely information to pork producers currently grappling with the high cost of heating fuels. By striking a delicate balance between the thermal comfort needs of the pig and the economic objectives of the farmer, we will be able to recommend nursery room temperatures that protect pig welfare while maintaining economic viability of the pork producer.
- Research will add welfare criteria and physiology measures to performance data on space allocations for nursery and grow-finish pigs. Most previous experiments on space requirements of pigs did not consider welfare, behavioral, and physiological needs of the pig. In our research and future projects we will consider these important measures in determining the most appropriate space allocations for nursery and grow-finish pigs. Certainly the diversity of expertise on our committee uniquely positions us to fulfill these objectives.
- Proper, well-organized management of personnel and pigs assures appropriate animal care and optimizes performance.
- Nutritional management enables swine producers to better manage sow body condition and reproductive performance.
- The cooperative research model allows for many more replications, in a variety of production facilities with a variety of genetics and health status. The variety and replications ensure that the results will be applicable across a broad cross-section of the U.S. Swine Industry.
Projected Participation
View Appendix E: ParticipationEducational Plan
Bridging the gap between science and the farm
o PorkBridge® Grow-Finish Educational Series will include six session covering issues of impact of out-of-feed events and water restrictions on performance, basic on-farm necropsy, basic ventilation controllers, keeping pigs eating in hot weather, biosecurity and animal welfare considerations. All sessions will be held over a toll-free telephone. Participants receive a CD via U.S. mail one week before each session. The CD contains a PowerPoint file that a noted expert will present over the phone on the appointed day. Participants include those involved in daily care of growing-finishing pigs. Participants like this format because they can be doing barn chores right up until 10 minutes before the program. Many just go to their barn computer, load the presentation, and call the toll-free number for one hour of instruction. After the program, they are back to work in 10 minutes. This program is conducted by University of Nebraska, South Dakota State University, University of Minnesota, and Iowa State University; however, participants are from these states as well as Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, and Kansas.
o Additional extension efforts are being planned in Missouri Pork College that will involve field trips and professional expertise from the NCERA-89 Swine Management committee. In other states, hands-on workshops are conducted to train managers and animal caretakers in the latest production techniques. Some of these techniques are based on this committees research results and stress efficient pork production in systems that optimize welfare of the pigs and workers.
Organization/Governance
The recommended Standard Governance for multistate research activities include the election of a Chair, a Chair-elect, and a Secretary. All officers are to be elected for at least two-year terms to provide continuity. Administrative guidance will be provided by an assigned Administrative Advisor and a CSREES Representative.
Literature Cited
Referred Publications:
Brumm, M.C., L.J. Johnston, D.W. Rozeboom, and the NCR-89 Committee on Swine Management. 2006. Effect of removal and remixing of heavyweight pigs on performance to slaughter weights. Prof. Anim. Sci. 22:189-193.
Gessel, P.D., N.C. Hansen, S.M. Goyal, L.J. Johnston, and J. Webb. 2004. Persistence of zoonotic pathogens in surface soil treated with different rates of liquid pig manure. Appl. Soil Ecology 25:237-243.
Brumm, M.C., M. Ellis, L.J. Johnston, D.W. Rozeboom, D.R. Zimmerman, and the NCR-89 Committee on Swine Management. 2002. Effect of removal and remixing of lightweight pigs on performance to slaughter weights. J. Anim. Sci. 80:1166-1172.
Brumm, M.C., M. Ellis, L.J. Johnston, D.W. Rozeboom, D.R. Zimmerman, and the NCR-89 Committee on Swine Management. 2001. Interaction of swine nursery and grow-finish space allocations on performance. J. Anim. Sci. 79:1967-1972.
Leibbrandt, V.D., L.J. Johnston, G.C. Shurson, J.D. Crenshaw, G.W. Libal, R.D. Arthur and the NCR-89 Committee on Swine Management. 2001. Effect of nipple drinker water flow rate and season on performance of lactating swine. J. Anim. Sci. 79:2770-2775.
Abstracts:
Brumm, M.C. D. Levis, and D. Ricker. 2006. PorkBridge: An on-farm delivered extension program. J. Anim. Sci. 84(Suppl. 1):64(Abstr.).
Goodband, R., M. Brumm, L. Johnston, K. Stalder, and NCR-89 Committee on Swine Management. 2006. Effect of mixing pigs or maintaining pen integrity on the response to grow-finish space allocation. J. Anim. Sci. 84(Suppl. 2):(Abstr.).
Brumm, M.C., L.J. Johnston, D.W. Rozeboom, and NCR-89 Committee on Swine Management. 2004. Effect of sorting, removal, and remixing of heavy pigs on finishing pig performance. J. Anim. Sci. 82(Suppl. 2):34(Abstr.).
Pohl, S., R. Thaler, M. Brumm, R. Stowell, J. Harmon, D. Stender, J. Weiss, L. Johnston, and L. Jacobson. 2004. Use of a mobile ventilation laboratory (VL) for hands-on training of pork producers in building ventilation. J. Anim. Sci. 82(Suppl. 2):46(Abstr.).
Brumm, M.C., L.J. Johnston, D.W. Rozeboom, and the NCR-89 Committee on Swine Management. 2003. Effect of sorting, removal and remixing of heavy pigs on finishing pig performance. J. Anim. Sci. 81(Suppl. 1):(Abstr.).