Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The annual meeting of NCERA-89 was held at South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD on November 2-4th, 2005. The meeting took place at the SDSU Alumni Center on the campus of South Dakota State University. Robert Thaler, South Dakota State University, coordinated the meeting. The NCERA-89 committee met with College of Agriculture Dean, Gary Lemme, to discuss the future of South Dakota State University. Several SDSU Animal and Range Science faculty members discussed their research programs. Robert Thaler gave an update on the agriculture industry in South Dakota and the demographics of the Animal and Range Science Department. Dr. Thaler called the NCERA-89 business meeting to order at 8:10 a.m. The agenda was reviewed. - Approve agenda; - Approval of minutes from 2004 NCERA-89 meeting; - CSREES Report; - NCERA-89 Administrative Advisor Report; - Distribution and Discussion of Station Reports; - Election of 2006 NCERA-89 Committee Chairman and Secretary; - Plans for the 2006 NCERA-89 meeting site and date; - Research Project Results; - Discussion of On-going Research; - Discussion of Published, Planned and Future Publications; - Brain storming on Future Projects; - Closing Remarks; - Adjourn; A motion was made and seconded to approve the agenda. The motion was unanimously approved. The 2004 NCERA-89 minutes were approved as written unanimously. Dr. Bert Stromberg, NCERA-89 Administrative Advisor, addressed the group and discussed the importance of committee members making sure they are listed on Appendix E of the NIMSS report. He mentioned that the committee will be up for renewal in March and the report is due in December. Dr. Stromberg mentioned that our committee does an excellent job collaborating on research and extension activities. The committee needs to list all research and extension efforts for impacts associated with the NCERA-89 objectives. There was some discussion about inviting other swine specialists to be committee members. Dr. Goodband moved to invite additional committee members and Dr. Thaler second the motion. Motion was unanimous. Mike Brumm volunteered to contact Peter Braunsen, Ken Kephart, and Rick Stowell. Robert Thaler volunteered to contact Dick Nicolai and Allen Harper. Marcia Shannon volunteered to contact Tom Fangman and Jeff Carroll. There was no CSREES Report. Dr. Gary Cromwell was unable to attend due to a meeting in Korea. A written report from him is attached. Dr. Shannon  Missouri was nominated for secretary and Dr. Stalder  Iowa was nominated for Chairman of NCERA-89 in 2006. A motion was made (Brumm-NE) and seconded to accept their nominations. The motion was accepted unanimously. The committee determined that the 2006 NCERA-89 committee meeting will be held at the University of Minnesota in Waseca, MN on October 18-20th. Dr. Lee Johnston will serve as host for this meeting. A motion was made (Moeller-Ohio) and seconded (Richert-IN). The motion was accepted unanimously. A motion was made (Thaler-SD) to have Steve Moeller at the Ohio State University hosts the 2007 meetings and seconded (Richert-IN). The motion was accepted unanimously. Members of NCERA-89 presented written and oral station reports. Members discussed current research projects. Dr. Goodband updated the progress of the experiment to evaluate the effects of maintaining pen integrity on growth performance and space requirements of pigs. Minnesota has 2 reps, Kansas, Iowa has 3 reps, and Nebraska has 2 reps were the participating stations. A motion was made and seconded (Shannon-MO and Thaler-SD) to submit an abstract for the 2005 National Animal Science Meetings with Goodband writing the abstract and Brumm as the presenter. The motion passed unanimously. Dr. Richert discussed the space study associated with the k constant in order to validate the breakpoint submitted to the National Pork Board last year. Discussion focused on protocol, data collection, videotaping, treatments, pen size, weighing frequency, conducting two separate studies with nursery, and the resubmission for a National Pork Board Animal Welfare grant. Kansas, Minnesota, Ohio and Missouri indicated participating in the nursery study. South Dakota, Purdue, and Kansas indicated interest in participating in the grow-finish study. Brian Richert (Purdue) will lead the project and resubmit the grant to National Pork Board Animal Welfare Section 4 Bullet 2. The project will be submitted as 2 separate proposals with one being only performance for nursery and grow-finish and the second proposal will be performance with blood parameters for nursery and grow-finish. The committee did agree to conduct the project without funding. Other research topics were discussed such as using hemp mats; sow longevity associated with gilt development and space requirements; switching ingredients in and out of rations affect on growth performance; and lowering energy costs with reduced temperatures in nursery buildings. The committee agreed to pursue research associated with reduced nocturnal temperatures affect on growth performance. Dr. Thaler-SD will send out a protocol. The committee showed their appreciation of Mike Brumm  NE participation in the NCERA-89 projects and celebrated his approaching retirement by giving him a desk clock with an engraved plaque. Discussion was to keep Brumm-NE on the committee as a consultant. The entire committee thanked Robert Thaler, South Dakota State University, for his time and effort in hosting and organizing the 2005 NCERA-89 Committee Meeting in Brookings, SD. No further business was discussed and the meeting was adjourned.

- 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 suggests 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 may allow the identification of new management approaches to enhance uniformity and ultimately increase opportunities for profit throughout the pork chain. - 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 6 states representing over 80% of the hogs marketed in the United States with plans to build a module 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 more the at least $2.00 per head marketed. - 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 was 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. - 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. - 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. These international approaches and collaborative efforts strengthen the position of the U.S. and Canadian researchers as they strive to meet the needs of their clientele.

Referred Publications o 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. o 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. o 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. o 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. Abstracts o 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.). o 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.). o 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.).