Representation from the Canadian Pork Council at the meeting provided information regarding the efforts of the Council in assisting swine producers with financial programs negotiated with the Federal Government. There is concern that the Canadian pork industry needs to be maintained in a sustainable fashion for all participants. Our Alberta Pork is represented by both Herman Simons as Chair and by Jurgen Preugschas as the current representative to the Council.

Big excitement from the new Alberta Livestock and Meat Strategy announced by Ag and Food Minister George Groeneveld. The intended support for a new method for marketing pork in, and from, this Province will lend itself to a more sustainable system of production and pricing for pigs.

CCSI Brian Kennedy Memorial Award

CCSI Chairman John Vande Glind makes presentation to Alfred Wahl

Nursery Feeding and Management

For pen groups from which future replacement stock will be selected, considerable effort should be made to ensure they get a little better care and management. Keep group size at 16 to 20 and do not overcrowd (provide 3.5 sq. ft /pig). Poor quality flooring that causes excessive slipping or foot damage is obviously to be avoided. Start the group off for the first 72 hours after weaning with liquid feeding or use wet/dry feeders that ensure lots of water in the trough. Use of a 4’ x 4’ feed mat will ensure that group feeding behavior can occur. A proper feeding strategy coupled with environmental controls and use of palatable, well balanced diets should give good quality pigs at the end of the nursery period.

Grow-finish Nutrition and Management

Traditionally, replacement gilts have been raised with the commercial pigs in either mixed sex groups or split-sex groups. Split-sex feeding is now commonly used in grow-finish barns and has allowed the implementation of different feeding and management strategies for barrows and gilts. For herds producing replacement gilts, diets should be formulated, and feeding programs established, to allow expression of their performance potential. To achieve this, herd-specific lean growth and feed intake curves should be established (see NRC 1998, National Hog Farmer, Oct. 15, 1998).

There is considerable evidence that restriction of feed, energy, protein or amino acid levels at 10 - 15% below ad libitum intake during the grow-finish period will not delay the onset of puberty or reduce ovulation rate or subsequent reproductive efficiency. But there is also considerable and consistent evidence that fast growth rate has NO detrimental effects on lifetime reproductive performance.

Table 1. Energy and nutrient requirements of gilts gaining 350g lean/day (NRC 1998)

Wt., kg	% protein	% lysine	% Ca	% P	Mcal DE/kg	Feed/day, kg
20-50	18.0	0.95	0.60	0.50	3.40	1.86
50-80	17.1	0.88	0.50	0.45	3.27	2.40
80-120	14.4	0.69	0.45	0.40	3.27	2.87

Table 2. Suggested feeding program for replacement gilts to 115 kg live

Wt., kg	% protein	% lysine	% Ca	% P	Mcal DE/kg	Feed/day, kg
20-50	19.5	1.05	0.80	0.70	3.35	1.70
50-75	17.0	0.85	0.75	0.65	3.25	2.50
75-90	15.5	0.75	0.65	0.55	3.25	2.75
90-115	14.0	0.65	0.60	0.50	3.25	2.90

This has been once again confirmed at the U of A. They reported that at growth rates between 0.55 to 0.80 kg/day from birth to 100 days of age there was no relationship between growth rate and age at puberty. However, the only drawback to fast growth is that these gilts are much heavier at time of breeding, which will increase maintenance costs. Excess protein/lysine in gilt developer diets are wasteful from a cost and environmental perspective and may even be harmful to gilt longevity.

The consensus appears to be that a feeding and management system that allows gilts to achieve commercially acceptable levels of performance during the grow-finish period will optimize subsequent reproductive performance.

In the absence of herd specific information as to the nutrient requirements of gilts, the NRC (1998) recommended feeding program can be used (Table 1). NRC (1998) suggests a three-phase, ad libitum feeding regime from 20 to 120 kg liveweight. Under commercial conditions four or five phase-feeding programs are more common.

Because lameness in replacement gilts is a major problem, the mineral levels of gilt diets are frequently an emotional topic of discussion. Most of the causes of lameness in gilts are due to Osteochondrosis (OCD), septic arthritis, foot lesions or structural problems. These problems are not influenced by the mineral levels of the diet. There is no evidence that exceeding the NRC (1998) levels of minerals in the diet will decrease the incidence of leg problems. Therefore, there is little justification for exceeding the calcium and phosphorus levels shown in Table 2 for ad libitum fed gilts.

In the next article we will cover the feeding of gilts from selection to breeding.