Using locally sourced feeds in swine diets, such as food processing byproducts or rejected crops, could save money and lower the carbon footprint of hog production, said the head of animal science research at the University of Manitoba.

Nyachoti highlighted research showing 65 per cent of the global warming potential ascribed to hog production comes from feed production, even without factoring in the transport of feed and feed commodities.

If Canadian hog producers can use locally available feed ingredients, there’s potential to decrease the sector’s climate change impact, he said.

Most well-known examples of alternative feeds in Canada are co-products from processing facilities that might otherwise end up in

Some haven’t been approved by the CFIA for use in feed but the only way to get them approved is to use them in on-farm trials and collect data necessary to support their approval, said Nyachoti.

Asked about fat content in some alternative feeds, especially from expeller ingredients, he said this is particularly important in Ontario with its high content of corn in swine diets. High levels of unsaturated fats can affect carcass quality.

He was also challenged about the load-by-load consistency in alternative feedstuffs and conceded he has seen significant variability.

Typically, there are quality control programs at processing facilities for canola meal and soy meal, promoting consistency, he said. But when using expeller meals or other byproducts from other crops, “consistency becomes a very big problem … You can see huge variation in the chemical composition of these products.”

Camelina cake, hemp meal, hemp hulls, hemp seed and flaxseed meal can all add significant energy content in a swine diet. Expeller or cold-pressed canola tends to have more energy than canola meal. However, many of these byproducts also contain a significant amount of fibre.

It’s now common for enzymes such as phytase to be added to pig diets to help them digest unconventional feed ingredients. Fibre tends to lower the nutritional value of swine feed, so it’s important to know the type of fibre involved.

There’s more research underway, Nyachoti said, including an exploration of pre-treating canola meal with enzymes to create a high-nutrient, highly digestible swine feed.

Amino acid profile is another important aspect of alternative feeds. feeds. This dictates protein content. Pea protein isolates, sunflower meal, camelina meal and soybean meal all have high protein levels.

Legumes and oilseeds

Soybeans, peas and canola are all grown in Manitoba, where many hog producers look to increase their use in feeds.

There are also novel crops meant for use as feed, such as hybrid rye. Production of that crop is increasing in Western Canada and it can provide significant energy. In recent research, feed efficiency was unchanged when switching to hybrid rye from traditional grain crops in a swine ration.

Nyachoti cautioned that the same research indicated potential impact to gut health in young pigs. This has also been shown in research on hybrid rye in Europe.

In a recent trial at the University of Alberta, lentils were added to young pig diets. To a level of 23 per cent in the ration, average daily gain was unaffected. Lentils that don’t meet food grade are a possible alternative feed in the west, as are faba beans.

In the future, byproducts from plant-based protein manufacturing facilities could be sourced for swine, said Nyachoti.

He later joined Jim Magolski of U.S.-based Niman Ranch antibiotic-free pork products to discuss swine herd protection against ailments conventionally targeted by antimicrobial drugs.

Some practices have been banned in Canada, Nyachoti cautioned, and concern about antibiotic resistance might also eliminate some of the products farmers have turned to as replacements.

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Communities in eastern North Carolina, the United States’ second-largest pork producer and one of the densest hog farming areas in the world, have for years complained about the smell and pollution caused by the animals’ manure.

But state laws passed in 2017 and 2018 curtailed their ability to file multi-million dollar lawsuits – so-called “nuisance orders” – against the farms.

Environmentalists and community groups filed a lawsuit in late June seeking to overturn those laws by arguing they violated property rights and the state’s constitution.

“How is it that the state can take away my community’s ability to protect our homes and health?” said Devon Hall, co-founder of the Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help, one of the plaintiffs.

A spokesperson for the North Carolina attorney general declined to comment on the lawsuit, as did a spokesperson for Smithfield Foods, a major hog producer in the area.

Residents say the stench can be so bad they can’t hang their laundry outside or have friends over for barbecues, advocates told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“All of these things … really result in severely diminished enjoyment of one’s property,” said Will Hendrick, a staff attorney with Waterkeeper Alliance, an advocacy group, and party to the suit.

“It’s long been considered that a man’s home is his castle, but this waste is breaching the castle.”

There are about 10 million pigs in North Carolina producing roughly 9.5 billion gallons of manure a year, according to those behind the lawsuit.

The waste is stored in open pits until it can be spread onto nearby fields as fertilizer.

A Duke University report in September found a range of health conditions associated with people living near large hog operations in eastern North Carolina, including higher mortality rates, but said the exact causes of the ailments were unclear.

The North Carolina Pork Council, an industry group, has expressed concern about the long-term impact of nuisance lawsuits on rural communities where “agriculture is critical to economic growth and success”.

Starting in 2013, hundreds of nuisance orders were filed and juries awarded tens of millions of dollars in compensation before the state legislature passed two laws restricting such suits, said Hendrick.

The first capped the amount that can be awarded under nuisance claims, while the second strictly limited the circumstances under which such suits can be brought.

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Stalosan is a dry environmental additive that can be used in livestock facilities to lower the spread of pathogens and is ideal in situations where liquid footbaths can’t be used.

The Danish product is distributed by Protekta, a southwestern Ontario family business.

Why it matters: Growing consumer interest in better animal welfare and reduced antibiotic use is driving demand for preventive products like environmental additives and feed ingredients.

“The main active is organic phosphate low in pH that kills pathogens,” said Lasse Jakobsen, business development manager with Protekta and Vilofoss USA. “It’s an extra defence barrier that helps maintain biosecurity and lower the spread of pathogens, and can be used when animals are present in the barn.”

According to Jakobsen, a maintenance program in a pig barn would require one to two applications per week at 50 grams per sq. metre. In cases of a disease outbreak, the product should be used two to three days in a row, but still at the same rate. One bag of Stalosan covers about 300 sq. metres, resulting in a cost of about 12 cents per sq. metre, Jakobsen estimated.

Special T Swine, a partial farrow-to-finish operation east of Brussels, has been using Stalosan in various aspects of the operation since the product’s early days in Canada. According to Jason Terpstra, it’s common practice, for example to put a cup or two on the floor of a farrowing room after cleaning, disinfecting and drying, where it will act as a dry boot dip to keep things clean.

The Terpstras also use it as an environmental cleaner to keep pathogens to a minimum with pigs that have scours or are otherwise not performing as they should.

“When there is a large problem, especially scouring, it’s one of the first things to grab; we’ll reach for that quicker than the antibiotic, depending on the pathogen we’re up against,” Terpstra said. “It’s wonderful for the 24-hour bugs.”

Among other products in Protekta’s lineup is a German product called PECKStone, which are blocks that can be placed inside poultry housing to minimize cannibalism and feather pecking.

In dairy, Protekta has brought X-Zelit to North America, a calcium-stabilizing dairy feed additive given to cows before calving to reduce milk fever risk. Originally developed at the University of Copenhagen, it’s now owned by Vilofoss, a European vitamin-mineral premix business.

According to Jakobsen, regulatory changes in Europe forced farmers into more preventive approaches to livestock farming. This resulted in the development of products like those Protekta now offers in North America, where antibiotic use regulations are also becoming stricter and consumer concerns around welfare are driving change throughout the supply chain.

It’s a big reason behind the company’s 259 per cent growth in the last five years — a figure that helped Protekta place 257th on the 2018 Growth500 list of Canada’s fastest growing companies, one of only six companies from the agriculture sector in last year’s rankings.

“The demand (in North America) has grown and we’ve been there to help meet that need — farmers are more receptive now,” said Jakobsen. “Consumer demand is driving demand for these products. Less antibiotic use and better animal welfare, prevention over treatment — these complement good management.”

It was the swine industry that first brought the Jakobsen family to Ontario from Denmark when his grandfather’s search for new genetics resulted in him buying a Huron County farm from where he bred and exported his own piglets back to his home country. Lasse’s father Morten, Protekta founder and chief executive officer, moved his family to Canada about 15 years ago and started the business shortly thereafter.

Today, the company has a team of six staff and distributes product into the United States from a warehouse in Mississauga, as well as servicing Canadian dealers and distributors.

Protekta is in the process of forming a U.S. company. The goal is to grow the North American marketing and move towards production on this side of the Atlantic, starting with X-Zelit this year in the U.S. and next year in Canada.

“We hope to continue on this growth. We are still in our infancy,” Jakobsen said. “The demand is there for these products and we believe they are the right way to raise animals.”

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The statement from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs is the government’s first comment on how the deadly disease has spread in the world’s top pork producer.

China has reported more than 40 outbreaks of the highly contagious disease since early August, with farms across 12 provinces and municipalities already infected.

Why it matters: African swine fever is highly contagious and damaging to hog populations, so any information on how it is spread is helpful, although feeding kitchen waste to pigs was eliminated years ago in most of the rest of the world after other disease outbreaks.

Beijing has not yet said how the disease first entered the country but the ministry found 62 per cent of the first 21 outbreaks were related to the feeding of kitchen waste, a statement published on its website said.

“These outbreaks were mostly located in urban-rural boundaries, and were particularly evident in several cases in early September in Anhui province,” the statement said. Anhui is an eastern province whose capital Hefei is located about 415 km (258 miles) west of Shanghai.

The virus was also detected in kitchen waste fed to pigs on a farm in the Inner Mongolia region, it added.

African swine fever does not affect humans.

“After the provinces with outbreaks and neighbouring provinces completely banned feeding of kitchen waste to pigs, the epidemic was greatly reduced, which fully demonstrates the importance of completely prohibiting the feeding of waste,” the statement said.

Kitchen waste or swill is widely used in China to feed hogs, particularly by small farmers, as it is cheaper than manufactured pig feed.

Regulations require that the swill must be heated to a certain temperature before being consumed but industry experts say that step is often skipped.

The ministry also said in the statement it will set up a registration system for vehicles transporting live hogs, poultry and other livestock to control the spread of the disease better.

The long-distance transport of live hogs has been the main channel for transmitting African swine fever across different regions, it said.

Vehicles transporting pigs and other animals will also no longer be allowed to use the “green channel” for priority on roads that is normally permitted for the trucking of fresh produce, added the ministry.

It called for more slaughtering closer to farms and the use of refrigerated transportation to better manage the supply of livestock across different regions.

China has promoted construction of new farms in the northeast in recent years, closer to its grain supplies. But the policy, which has not yet been accompanied by investment in new slaughterhouses, has led to large numbers of pigs being trucked long distances south.

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U.S. government officials said in interviews they are also increasing their ability to test for the disease, African swine fever, and drawing up plans to respond quickly if a case is identified.

Detection of the virus in the United States would curb shipments in the US$6.5-billion export market for American pork at a time when the industry is already reeling from retaliatory tariffs imposed by China and Mexico.

African swine fever is a devastating disease that can cause hemorrhaging in the skin and internal organs and death for hogs in as little as two days.

China, the world’s top pork producer, culled 200,000 pigs following recent outbreaks, while France is building a fence after the virus was found in wild boars in neighbouring Belgium.

Though not harmful to humans, there is no vaccine for the disease, and transmission can occur in many ways, including direct contact between animals, through contaminated food and by people contaminated with the virus travelling from one place to another.

The USDA is asking veterinarians and farmers to immediately report sick pigs to government officials so they can be tested for African swine fever. The agency is also planning its response to a potential infection and increasing its capacity to perform rapid tests at laboratories.

“We’re looking at all of our gaps and possibilities,” said Jack Shere, the USDA’s chief veterinary officer. “If we do get it, we have to be able to recognize it and respond to it.”

Smithfield Foods, the world’s biggest pork processor, has imposed strict restrictions on farm and facility visits to guard against African swine fever, spokeswoman Keira Lombardo said. People who recently travelled internationally are prohibited, she said.

In Minnesota, hog farmer Randy Spronk said he asked feed brokers and manufacturers, such as Royal DSM, about the origin of the swine vitamins and feed additives he buys. If the products come from China, he wants them kept in storage because the virus is thought to die out when held in dry conditions.

DSM does not quarantine products from China to prevent African swine fever because it takes 120 days to reach the U.S. market, said Hugh Welsh, president of DSM North America. That is thought to be long enough for the virus to become ineffective.

New Fashion Pork, which produces 1.4 million market hogs annually across seven U.S. states, is asking feed companies to keep ingredients from China in storage for at least 30 days, owner Brad Freking said. After that, Freking is holding the products in storage for another 45 days.

“We have asked our supplier to basically quarantine those ingredients,” Freking said.

Keeping feed in storage raises costs for farmers because it requires them to have more supplies on hand. It also ties up storage space in warehouses, sheds and barns.

The need for quarantines is unclear, according to U.S. officials, because manufacturing processes often kill diseases.

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The company has completed more than half of its transition, according to Dr. Greg Douglas, vice-president of animal care.

Along the way the company has learned a lot about housing and managing sows in groups.

Why it matters: The hog industry had adopted new standards for animal housing that must be in place by 2024, a deadline which will come quickly for farmers.

About 40,000 of the company’s 70,000 sows are currently managed under the advanced open-housing system, and the company expects to complete the shift by 2021.

The pork industry has until July 2024 to do away with gestation crates, except for a period right after breeding. By that point, all sows and mated gilts must be housed in groups, individual pens or, if stalls are still used, given the chance for exercise. The changes came down with the release of the National Farm Animal Care Council’s Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs in 2014, which sought to phase out gestation crates.

New barns have had to meet the standard since the document’s release. The new code has mandated that any new or rebuilt facilities be fit with group housing, and that any new or replaced stalls for use right after breeding had to be big enough that the pig could stand without touching the edges and lie down without pushing into the next stall.

What Maple Leaf has learned:

• The company went back into barns when it learned more about managing sows.
• An advanced open sow housing system is now used which reduces breeding stall time from a month to seven to nine days.
• Sows move in social groups from breeding to gestation to farrowing.

Maple Leaf Foods says it has rebuilt 31 barns so far. Animals are sent to a training facility while facilities are being rebuilt to familiarize both pigs and staff to the new system and the electronic sow feeders that are now status quo for Maple Leaf Foods.

“We can monitor whether one animal picks up on the new system right away or if another animal takes a lot longer to learn the system,” Douglas said. “We will monitor that with computers, where we can tell which animals go through the system, and then if an animal needs more time or if it needs human help to show it the way, then we do that.”

Some barns have been retrofitted twice, Douglas said. A year and a half into conversions, the company opted for what it describes as an “advanced open sow housing system,” a system it says cuts down breeding stall time from over a month to seven to nine days. The company returned to refit the already converted barns.

The advanced system promotes more mobility compared to other systems where stall structure is largely intact and sows have to back out of the stall into a common area to socialize, the company says.

Under the design, Maple Leaf Foods houses 40-60 animals per enclosure. Electronic feeders sit at the periphery while the wider room is segmented into periodic alcoves with half-walls, something the company says will allow their animals to socialize in smaller groups or escape any aggressors, if needed. The company has also opted for one-way, single animal feeders to avoid a competitive feeding environment and give control over each pig’s ration.

“We’ve found that our densities are optimal for animals figuring out quickly what social structure they’re in and they access the feeders on their own and we get very little competition,” he said.

Managing competition issues

Douglas also said the company’s static group management has helped allay competition issues, something that has been among the prime concerns of farmers contemplating a switch to group housing.

“They go to farrowing together; they come out of farrowing together and they go into group housing together,” he said. “So the same 40-60 sows get to know each other and they know who goes through the feeder first, who goes through last, who likes to sleep with who, who likes to hang out with who. It’s very much relying on natural behaviour.”

Staff have also found it easier to diagnose issues in the new system, since they more freely interact with the animals under group housing, he added.

The company’s 40-60 sow groups are par for the course, according to Mark Flynn, manager of quality assurance and animal care with the Manitoba Pork Council. Flynn said other barns equipped with open housing have used similar numbers.

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“Producers check (off) what they see last,” said Iowa State University nutritional researcher Ken Stalder at the World Pork Expo.

“The primary reason often doesn’t get recorded in their reporting systems.”

Many North American sow herds have “unacceptable” cull rates for sows, with 55 to 65 per cent replacement rates within herds.

The most commonly noted reason is “reproductive failure,” but Stalder thinks that masks the true cause for many cases.

Some sows might have problems with their reproductive systems, but others aren’t breeding or carrying fetuses to term because of feet and leg problems.

“If a sow has poor feet and legs and she doesn’t want to stand up and eat in farrowing, she’s obviously going to get thin. If she gets thin, when she gets weaned she may not cycle in a timely manner.

“If she doesn’t cycle in a timely manner, she may not cycle at all. If she cycles she may not conceive, or if she conceives she may not hold that litter until she farrows.”

Stalder said research he was involved with revealed 85 per cent of cull sows inspected at a packing plant had at least one foot lesion.

The connection to vitamin consumption comes from the importance of vitamins to pig leg and foot health. Without optimal nutrition, sows and other pigs can develop foot and back problems.

In sows, that can lead to poor reproductive performance, but if foot and leg problems are not recorded or realized to be a cause at time of culling, it can be a hidden problem.

“Vitamin D is very critical in developing good bone structure,” said Stalder.

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