| July 2005,
Vol. 8, No. 7 PEAK OF PERFORMANCE NEWS |
Congratulations to Hutterville Colony, Roseglen Colony, Bench Colony, Milford Colony, Newell Colony and Miltow Colony on receiving their first annual Productivity Awards for achieving more than 25 pigs weaned/sow/year during 2004. We anticipate there will be a number of herds achieving this level of productivity in 2005, as barn management routines are established to feed better and breed more effectively. Well done by all members of the barn teams!
Hog prices seem to be in significant decline in the coming winter months. Consider forward pricing your hogs with the WHE, if you are using it as your marketing vehicle. Hog numbers seem to be holding up to a greater extent than anticipated, in spite of the fact that there aren’t so many new operations coming on stream. However, average productivity of the sows currently in the system is improving each parity – 23.55 pigs weaned/mated female/year in Canada and 21.25 in the US. It may also be that the huge local demand for pork (Atkins Diet) is waning at the same time that international exports are off, and hence, impacting prices negatively.
Yorkshire and Landrace pigs probed at Jakubec Farm in May showed the excellent performance in the table below:
| Breed |
No. |
Average |
Age to 100 kg liveweight |
Loin |
Est. Lean Yield |
| Yorkshire boars |
3 |
9.8 mm |
146 days |
63.2 mm |
63.8% |
| Yorkshire gilts |
41 |
9.6 mm |
161 days |
64.8 mm |
63.9% |
| Landrace boars |
6 |
9.8 mm |
147 days |
62.0 mm |
63.7% |
| Landrace gilts |
36 |
9.6 mm |
152 days |
64.7 mm |
64.0% |
Rob Johnson’s Landrace boar “Larry” works hard at his lowly 260 kg body weight, breeding up to three sows at one time. The boar still looks good, even though he’s working hard.
Spring Valley Colony sent 63 barrows to OLYMEL May 19 to have the 86.6 kg carcasses measure 15.3 mm backfat, 60.0 mm lean and index 110.1. OLYMEL reckons that loin depth should increase 0.5 mm/kg so that at 90 kg, these hogs would have had 62 mm loin depths.
Robyn Harte, M. Sc., Research Co-ordinator
Nutrition
Diet can influence the size of the loin by feeding into lean deposition and encouraging feed intake. If the amino acid content of a diet is too low, then loin size will not be optimized as such. It is important to feed the lean tissue deposition with higher levels of protein, especially during the pre-grower and grower periods, when the loin is developing. Below is a brief summary of the nutritional recommendations for PEAK Swine Genetics market hogs, to aide in the formulation of appropriate rations to encourage lean growth.
|
Nutrient Recommendations for PEAK Swine Genetics® Market Pigs |
|||||||
|
Nutrients |
3-5 |
10-20 |
20-50 |
50-80 |
80-120 |
Finish |
|
|
Metabolizable Energy |
Mcal/kg |
3.4 |
3.4 |
3.4 |
3.4 |
3.4 |
3.4 |
|
Crude Protein |
% |
26 |
20.9 |
18.0 |
16.3 |
13.8 |
13.3 |
|
Lysine (Avail) |
% |
1.53 |
1.19 |
1.04 |
0.88 |
0.68 |
0.64 |
|
Threonine |
% |
0.99 |
0.75 |
0.67 |
0.56 |
0.44 |
0.41 |
|
Methionine |
% |
0.40 |
0.31 |
0.27 |
0.23 |
0.18 |
0.17 |
Diet can also influence the size of the loin by encouraging feed intake. Palatable feeds are necessary to encourage feed intake. Diets that have inappropriate nutrient ratios; that are composed of old or moldy feeds; diets that are not composed of feedstuffs that pigs like to eat (e.g. possess anti-nutritional factors such as tannins) reduce feed intake. To avoid reducing feed intake in any way, maintain good communications with your nutritionist to ensure proper nutrition specifications and manufacture.
Management
Management is an often over-looked factor affecting loin size. While good nutrition and good genetics are important, if the overall management is not utilized to its full potential, a producer will not receive full benefits from his hog production. Good management starts in the farrowing crate. It is carried through to loading the market hogs onto the truck. Providing animals with a clean, well-maintained environment that allows them adequate time and space at feeders and drinkers are all good barn management strategies. Utilizing production strategies such as all-in/all-out and split-sex feeding help the producer to maximize loin size.
Genetics
Good genetics can mean the difference between a 57 mm and a 62 mm loin. Selecting genetics that maximize lean growth potential is as important as feeding those animal correctly. Good genetics forms the foundation upon which a large-loined, low backfat animal is built.
Without a pig’s potential to grow lean and large, no amount of nutrition or management will create a large loin. Selecting large-loined, lean boars like the PEAK Pathfinder Duroc or Trailblazer® is a good starting point for any producer looking to increase the measured loin size found his market hog settlement slips.
| Manager | Territory | Cell Telephone | |
| Les Robinson | Southern & Central Alberta | (250) 833-6196 | |
| Paul Klingeman | Pacific Northwest | (509) 989-1347 | |
| Mike Miller | Saskatchewan and Montana | (403) 317-0543 |
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