| September
2005,
Vol. 8, No. 9 PEAK OF PERFORMANCE NEWS |
PEAK Swine Genetics staff participated in the Iron Chef as well as the Best BBQ Ribs contests at the Pork & Fiddle exposition at Benalto in August. The Bluegrass tunes and food were terrific – especially the pulled pork bun from Alberta Pork and the roasted pigs supplied from Kingdom Farms. PEAK competed in the best-dressed booth with the “PEAKqueros” as its theme. Unfortunately, we didn’t win that judging. This was a great way to tempt non-pig producers into tasting pork and seeing how pork is used in a number of recipes.
Kevin McCullough manages a golf team just as well as he does his operations at J&M Meats, Warburg. Kevin’s team won the Alberta Pork Congress golf tournament at –15 strokes for the eighteen holes. Congratulations!
Bench Colony’s PigWin data shows the shows the excellent productivity in the table below. It does show that 30+ pigs weaned per sow can be achieved over the short term: it takes a bit more effort to get those numbers over the entire year. Large litters, low mortality and high productivity need to be combined.
|
Mar27 |
Apr3 |
. . |
May22 |
May29 |
Summary |
|
| Farrowing rate (%) |
85.7 |
92.9 |
. . |
84.2 |
100.0 |
92.4 |
| Litters Farrowed/sow |
2.61 |
2.63 |
. . |
2.62 |
2.63 |
2.63 |
| Weaned pigs/sow/yr |
29.35 |
28.74 |
. . |
33.11 |
30.31 |
29.30 |
Thanks to everyone who is now a PEAK client!
Crystal Spring Colony will be culling a 9th parity sow that produced 14.2 total piglets/litter and 11.8 live pigs/litter in her lifetime. Indicates both good genetics and excellent breeding management!
Plainview Colony has farrowed 12 live piglets in each of eight Landrace gilt litters farrowed in July and August. Super breeding considerations – and we give the Yorkshire boars some credit too!
Robyn Harte, M. Sc., Research Co-ordinator
Paylean™ is not an antibiotic or steroid. It is one of a number of compounds known as beta-agonists, which act on receptors on muscle and fat cells. Familiar beta-agonists are those that are used by asthmatics, such as Ventolin. Paylean™ does not have a withdrawal period, making it ideal to feed late in the finisher stage. However, there are no officially recommended antibiotics or other feed grade medications available to use with Paylean™.
How does Paylean
™ work?Paylean™ works at the cellular level. As pigs continue through to the finishing stage, there is decreasing protein deposition with increasing fat deposition. Paylean™ works to redirect nutrients away from depositing fat towards protein deposition. It encourages protein synthesis while decreasing protein breakdown and decreasing fat synthesis. Encouraging protein synthesis effectively lengthens the ‘grow’ period for the pigs, making it possible for genetic growth potentials to be obtained. Paylean™ also decreases feed intake. Lowering feed intake while increasing protein deposition improves gain to feed ratios, making the pig more efficient at gaining protein during the finisher stage. It is important to note that if you feed Paylean™ to all of your stock you will observe different responses. [Cattle and sheep respond very well to Paylean™, pigs have moderate improvements while poultry do not experience the same level
of improvement as either cattle or sheep or pigs.]| Response in Hogs |
% Improvement |
| Increased fat-free growth |
34.0 |
| Increased protein accretion |
24.0 |
| Decreased feed intake |
5.5 |
| Increased average daily gain |
8.9 |
| Improved feed/gain |
14.2 |
| Reduced backfat thickness |
13.7 |
| Increased dressing percentage |
1.5 |
Schinckel and Rickert, 2000
How do I feed Paylean
™?The recommended inclusion rate is that of 4.5-18 g/ton of complete feed. Paylean™ is only to be fed to pigs from 65 kg to market weight. The limited feeding window is due to a
decrease in effectiveness over time and to maximize the growing period during the fattening stage.The diet fed to pigs receiving Paylean™ must be of a higher quality than what is normally fed to finishing pigs. The greater growth requires a greater energy content in the diet to grow and maintain the greater body mass. There must also be a minimum of 16% crude protein available in the
finisher diet.Can’t I feed Paylean
™ from weaning to market weight?There are two reasons for not feeding Paylean™ throughout the production cycle. The first is that immediately after weaning and through the grower stage, pigs grow very efficiently. There are no substantial improvements to growth observed when
Paylean™ is fed earlier than the finisher stage. The second reason for not feeding Paylean™ through the cycle is that over time Paylean™ becomes less effective. Exactly why pigs appear to become insensitive to the compound is unclear but decreases in improvements to growth are observed after four weeks of feeding.If I feed Paylean
™, what will I notice?If you are already producing genetically-lean, fast-growing pigs in your barn, the observed increases will likely be smaller. However, if you have medium- to low- production hogs, you may see greater improvements in their performance. Exactly why there is a difference between low- and high-producing pigs is unclear. Overall, the general improvements observed are shown in the table in the left-hand column.
| 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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