Stu Ellis, formerly with University of Illinois Extension, serves as the Farmgateblog.com blogger and editor. Ellis has been a presence in Illinois agriculture for more than thirty years and he brings an impressive array of credentials to his new position.

Most farmers are working quite hard to produce as much food as possible for a hungry world and marketplace, but daily get criticized by non-farmers because of doing things that the non-farmers do not think should be done.  Few folks, other than pork producers, have seen pregnant sows fight, but think they know how hogs should be raised.  Today agriculture seems to take it on the chin from society, and it makes you wonder who is winning.

The winner in the modern day food fight has not been decided, but each has scored punches, believes Robert Paarlberg, a Wellesley University ag economist, who recently spoke at Purdue University.  Addressing “Food Politics” Paarlberg said there are several fundamental disagreements, including:  what farms should look like, the most important challenge to farming, agriculture’s relationship to nature, and about who should make decisions about food and agriculture.

Dividing the two sides into advocates for conventional agriculture and advocates for alternative agriculture, Paarlberg said large specialized farms are OK for conventional agriculture, but not for the alternative group.  He said the first group finds the primary challenge is to produce much more food by 2050, but the alternative group wants to preserve traditional rural livelihoods, protect biodiversity, and provide ecosystem services.  Regarding their relationship with nature, conventional agriculture sees nature being protected by high yields to reduce the area being cropped.  The alternative group believes the best systems are those that imitate nature.  And regarding decision making, conventional agriculture accepts governments, technical experts and the market, all of whom are not to be trusted by the alternative group.

The current movement toward “local food,” promotes the fact that the number of farmers’ markets has doubled since 1998, and the number of community-supported agriculture enterprises has risen from 400 in 2001 to 4,000 today.  However, food sales by those entrepreneurs represent only .04% of all agricultural sales in the US.  Similarly, only 4% of all food sales is organic, only 7% of farmers’ market sales is organic food, and 45% of all organic food is produced in only 2 states.  In 2008, harvested organic cropland made up only .51% of all US cropland.

Within nations belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) the period from 1990 to 2004 saw a 5% increase in the volume of food production, along with a 4% decrease in land farmed, a 9% decrease in irrigation used, a 17% drop in excess nitrogen use, a 5% decrease in pesticide use while the contribution to increased greenhouse gas production was only one sixth of the rest of the economy.  Since 1980, US agriculture has engaged in precision agriculture for more precise irrigation, fertilizer use, reduced pesticide use and reduced tillage, which saves diesel fuel.  Paarlberg pointed to his home state of Ohio and said while 30% of all farms had GPS systems in tractors, that technology was used by over 78% of farms in the large category with over $1 million in commodity sales.  The same comparison was made for yield monitors, which are used by 25% of all farms, but 80% of large farms, and for geographically-referenced soil mapping that is used by 23% of all farms, but 56% of large farms.

Crop protection chemicals are becoming more precise in their use says Paarlberg since the 1972 ban on organochlorine insecticides and the 1990 introduction of variable rate application.  In 1996 glyphosate was introduced replacing more toxic herbicides, and in the same year Bt corn and cotton was introduced to reduce the insecticide use on those crops.  He also said significant reductions in the use of diesel fuel and loss of soil began in the 1980’s with the use of no-till planters and in the 1990’s with the introduction of glyphosate that required less mechanical cultivation.

However, Paarlberg said confined animal feeding operations or CAFOs have become significant targets recently for opponents.  While CAFOs have reduced the cost of food to consumers and reduced the frequency of food contamination, CAFOs work less well for waste disposal, dependence upon antibiotics and raise animal welfare complaints.  He noted the increasingly hostile environment for CAFOs, in which court and FDA actions have been against the use of antibiotics, there have been state-level bans on gestation crates for gilts and sows and small cage space for laying hens.  And he said a growing number of food service companies have taken voluntary action against gestation crates.

So who is winning the food fight?  Paarlberg concludes that alternative agriculture has become dominant in the elite cultural marketplace.  Conventional crop farming has given up none of its dominance in the commercial marketplace.  And conventional livestock farming is being forced to accept new restraints from the commercial and political marketplace.

By: Brandi Buzzard

By this point in time, we are all aware of the devastating impact that social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and You Tube can have on the agriculture industry. For example, Twitter has over 140,000,000 worldwide active users and Facebook has over 157,000,000 users in the U.S. alone. Hence, one spark on either site can light a fire which spreads so quickly that the effects sometimes seem irreparable.

Take for example the recent defamation of Beef Products Inc. and the lean, finely textured beef debacle. One journalist’s nasty opinion of BPI’s efficient, high quality product resulted in the closing of 75% of BPI plants and the loss of over 650 jobs. Much of this can be attributed to social media – tweets and Facebook posts were rampant across the internet as “pink slime” took the world by storm and the beef industry raced to protect their name.

The pork industry is not immune to these attacks. Recently, an undercover video released by HSUS showcased swine farm employees in Wyoming exhibiting abhorrent animal handling practices. I was ashamed and infuriated at the horrible treatment that the employees were showing the pigs. As was expected, tweets and Facebook and blog posts started popping up on the internet – some spreading word of the horrible acts and some defending the pork industry as a whole. Those who defended our industry all the while maintained that a minute portion of farmers treat animals in such away and are frowned upon. Once again, agriculture was being reactive.

All is not lost; there are many ways to be proactive in animal agriculture. For example, Ohio Pork Tour is a channel on YouTube in which visitors can view informative videos about different aspects of pork production. All the videos have titles aimed at catching the eye of skeptical consumers – the video Life in Confinement has over 9,000 views and another video titled Pig Farm Employee Tells All has over 34,000 views. Utilizing anti-ag rhetoric to the industry’s advantage allows us to reach out and talk to a group of people who are otherwise resistant to the facts of pork production. The same methods can be used on Twitter to catch the eye of followers. For example, I tweeted “What do you think about pigs living indoors?” and linked it to a blog post about why pork producers raise pigs indoors. That strategy enabled me to reach over 200 people who hopefully learned a bit more about pork production.

Engaging an audience doesn’t have to happen solely online, there are opportunities for pork producers to reach out and speak to consumer groups in their surrounding communities. In January 2011 I became an Operation Main Street speaker which is a program initiated by the National Pork Board. The program prepares and trains speakers to visit community groups such as Rotary and VFW clubs and speak to them about modern pork production and consumption. I gave one such presentation about a month ago in a nearby town and the audience was really receptive to the positive message I was sharing about pork. While they truly appreciated my presentation, I know they would have welcomed a large-scale pork producer who could attest to the daily grind of raising healthy pigs and producing safe, wholesome pork. I plan to continue speaking to groups and strongly encourage all pork producers to complete the program and become a positive representative of their industry to the general consumer.

People want to hear what you have to say – tell your story to eager ears.

Follow Brandi on Twitter or email her bbuzzard13@gmail.com

 Learn more about Brandi:

Brandi Buzzard is a native of Colony, KS where she grew up rodeoing and showing livestock with her family.  A passionate agriculture advocate, she authors a blog about current industry issues and contributes to the NCBA YPC and Food For Thought blogs. She attended Kansas State University where she earned her B.S. in Animal Sciences and Agriculture Economics and is continuing her education there while pursuing a M.S. in Animal Behavior, Well-Being and Health.

Brandi is active in a variety of agriculture organizations including the Kansas Livestock Association, the National Pork Board’s Operation Main Street, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Young Producer’s Council  and Food For Thought. Outside of her professional interests she enjoys spending time with her husband and family, rodeoing, working on the farm and globetrotting.

From flowers and asparagus to wheat heading, things are happening earlier this year.  Is this from my slower response time like everything else, because I am getting older or is this the new normal?  Saw wheat combined this week in western Oklahoma, alfalfa hay in the barn three weeks ago in Arthur, IL, and soybeans through the ground in Lincoln, IL that same day.

Seeing the number of new oil wells that were being drilled in southern New Mexico and West Texas have inspired me that our entrepreneurs’ still have the desire to make things better.  Irrigated pecan farms full of lush green leaves and the arid areas of the high plains once again abounding with healthy alfalfa plants were a joy to observe.  Dairy farms full of happy cows and the only empty feed lot was starting to build inventory of feed to bring the facility back into production.

Where are you in the Spring schedule at your farming operation?  Have you thought about increasing the anti-virals and anti-oxidants in your feed to see if they can help keep PRRS and other unwanted visitors off the farm. There are ways to address both concerns for healthy animals and healthy pits.  I am sourcing new products to get me on schedule to keep ahead of feed concerns and staying ahead of manure problems, before they become feed source problems when we apply them to our fields. Ask me if they will work for you.

Have you addressed air purification or air quality in the housing? Smelling ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and is there methane around? Are you still putting up with pit foaming or solids buildup in the lagoon that have snuck up on us just like increasing age. Could we do a better job in our carcass composting?

IT IS THE MIDDLE OF MAY AND TIME TO GET BACK ON SCHEDULE!!

Have you taken you sweetie for an evening stroll, or checked the newly planted crops in your field to ensure your livestock will get to eat the grain and not insects or worms in the field?  Have you gone to spring track meets, ball games with your kids or grandkids?  Machinery needs maintenance and ditches need mowed before Memorial Day.

Have you kept up with your personal health?  The best maintenance you can do for your operation is to keep yourself as healthy as the livestock.

Are you purchased on feed ingredients or hedged for your own supply?  Have you offered to help weed the flower beds?  Have you fixed a meal for your workers that is special and unexpected?  This can be a great moral booster on a typical day when it is least expected.

Let’s all get back on schedule…

Brad Forkner, Nutrient Management Specialists

forkner54@ameritech.net

Twitter: @BradForkner

Today while at work I read a lot of information about the FDA encouraging drug companies to relabel feed used animal antibiotics so they can not be used as a growth enhancer for animals.  To be honest, I really don’t think that is the best use of our antibiotics anyway, even though my farm does feed one antibiotic this way.  We are looking to discontinue use regardless of the advice of the FDA because it doesn’t seem to do much for us.  Honestly, each animal we sell eats less than a few pounds of the stuff over their lifetime, and I wonder how much that really adds up to for people, but I really don’t know.

The second part of this issue is banning the antibiotics fed to animals as disease prevention if they are similar to ones used in humans.  Would this really lead to the use of less antibiotics while raising happier and healthier animals?  The treatments that vets and farmers come up with for common problems are meant to keep the animals healthy and stress free until they reach market age.  They are not intended to put an unnecessary amount of drug residue into the food supply.

Places that butcher animals also have withdrawal tests for all antibiotics that animals are treated with before they are brought in.  For example, if an animal is given a shot of penicillin, it may not be able to go to market for 20 days, allowing the drug to exit the system.  After so many days withdrawal, the drug can not be traced in the animals.  If a drug trace is found, the farmer doesn’t receive his full pay, or the meat is rejected completely.  Neither one of these options pays for the farmer.

What if this mandate goes into full effect?  I believe there are other options we could use that we may want to look into anyway.  What about probiotics in feed?  What about other more natural supplements that we could use?  If there is a better way out there for us to make our product, we need to find it and take advantage of it.  Fighting changes just because they take us out of our comfort zone isn’t a good way to go.  We need to be open to innovation, even if it makes us come at an issue from a different angle.  People can do great things when given a challenge.

If science and the consumer dictate that a change in the way we produce our food is necessary, we can’t call for this change to occur in one day, one week, or maybe even in one year.  A transition period is needed for producers to regroup, and new methods to be field researched on how to handle the problems at hand.

It is the responsibility of all people involved in agriculture to produce the best food that they can.  Each farmer I know believes in full faith that they are sending the best product to the consumer.  They are proud of the time and effort put in two raise the animals and crops.  Each farmer eats the crop he produces and the animal he grows.  We are all in this together.

About Rebecca:
I’m a farm girl, proud FFA Alumni and Farm Bureau member, who went to the city for her business degree. I love working out, cooking, and having conversations about agriculture. I see things as part of a connected system, where we have to make choices about what we value and wish to maintain. I’m also an avid reader, and education junkie.

About Barton Farms:
A Third Generation Family Hog Farm in Homer, Michigan that believes in raising hogs environmentally and economically.

M y c o p l a s m a hyosynoviae has continued to be a clinically significant d i s e a s e . The organism is thought to be trans-mitted vertically from gilts and sows to their piglets prior to weaning. Pig to pig transfer occurs post weaning. The timing and rate of spread of this organism can be quite variable and this can complicate both prevention and treatment strategies.
The main clinical sign of Mycoplasma hyosynoviae is lameness associated with arthritis. The number of pigs that need to be treated and pulled from the pen usually increases when the pigs reach approximately 16 weeks of age.

These pigs are in a significant amount of pain. Producers have noted that affected pigs will sit on their hips, rather than the more common dog sitting position. They are attempting to keep as much weight as possible off of their leg joints. Affected pigs are extremely slow to rise and are very shaky when they attempt to do so. The gait of these pigs is very short and stilted. After a bit of movement the pig may start to walk more normally. Most animals will try to “mask” signs of a weakness in order to avoid attracting the
attention of a predator. The affected pigs soon lose the desire to get up and seek feed and water. They tend to lie in a corner or sides of the pen in order to avoid contact with pen mates.  When the pigs do get up they will tend to walk along the edges of the pen and then proceed to get a drink of water.

The percentage of pigs that are clinically affected can range between 5 % and 30 %, even within the same flow. Mortality from the arthritis itself is low and most death loss is associated with euthanizing pigs that fail to maintain body weight. (Brunner) The diagnosis of M hyosynoviae has been made easier with PCR tests. Joint swabs or intact joints can be submitted for culture when intact joints are submitted. It is important to trim the leg muscle as soon as possible so that the ice packs can cool the joint down more quickly.

Treatment of sporadic individual cases involves the use of antimicrobials such as lincomycin, tulathromycin and tylosine. These must be given at the earliest signs of lameness. Failure to treat early in the onset of disease will significantly reduce the probability of a successful outcome. Preventive feed medication programs usually start at 2 to 3 weeks prior to the onset of clinical signs. Tiamulin, chlortetracycline, tylosin and lincomycin are the most c ommo n l y u s e d f e e d g r a d e antimicrobials. Water medication can be used if the incidence of cases increases rapidly. The treatment strategy is usually switched to feed medication to complete the course of treatment.

Autogenous M. hyosynoviae and M hyorhinis vaccines have been developed in the US and are currently being researched.

Ref: 2012 AASV Annual Meeting: Integrating Science, Welfare and Economics in Practice, American Association of Swine Veterinarians 462 Dr. Laura Brunner

This week’s blog is by Don Lidster.

Nancy was on the road this week until Friday night, had a Karate Tournament Saturday and we were volunteering at our Community Hall on Sunday for Mother’s Day Brunch so she accepted my offer to put in my “two bit’s worth”.

I will start with a confession. When we were first in the pig production business I was probably one of the worst trainers new staff had ever encountered. My hope is that after taking some training myself on training people that my early errors have been forgiven by “the world”. Since that time I have worked with a lot of Barn Managers and Assistant Managers who were wired like I was but had been thrust into the training role. You know the routine. The good stock person gets promoted to Barn Manager because of their results with pigs and then are expected to train others to be as good at production as they were when really what they liked to do was work with pigs. You get the picture.

How often have you asked someone to “change the way they do a task”, expecting that the change will take place, not now but right now? In my early years as a manager I figured if I explained to someone what I wanted changed, how I wanted it changed plus some good reasons why I wanted the change, presto, we would have a new behaviour. Looking back, surprisingly it often did work fairly well as long as the person I was expecting to change was focused on trying to change. Where it came off the rails was when that person had to react to a situation quickly or rely on their old habits. Does that sound familiar with trying to change your pig handling ways or to change the ways of some of your people?

Getting people to change seemed to get easier for me after I read Stephen R. Covey’s book on 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In the book he presents the diagram below:

I think this diagram helps us to get our heads around what we have to have to change a Habit. We need Skills, Knowledge and Desire. Only when these three components overlap do we get true formation of Habits. How many people do you know who had all kinds of Desire to be better Pig Handlers but do not have the Knowledge or Skills to do the job? It is probably most frustrating to these people to want to do better but when the crunch is on they fall back to their old ways. It is probably even more frustrating to people (just back from one of Nancy’s Courses) who are full of Desire, they have this new found Knowledge, but they have not yet developed the Skill to pull off the task successfully. Forming a new Habit is not a quick fix. As Covey says “Creating a habit requires work on all three dimensions”.

Horace Mann an educator who lived from May 4, 1796 to August 2 1859 once said “Habits are like cables. We weave them a strand of it every day and soon it cannot be broken”. We know now cables can be broken but I think the statement reinforces that every time we repeat a process we are driving that concept into our way of thinking/minds/heads. When it is in our heads, that is what we will naturally do when the pressure is on or we are acting without thinking.

So what does that say about training Pig Handlers? I think it says we not only need the training course but we need some time to develop the “Skills” part of the diagram to really entrench the Habit of good handling. I also think this diagram explains why newly trained handlers can back slide into their old Habits. One, they may have not developed the Skills they need but the second thing that can happen is, their Desire can drop off pretty quickly when they don’t form the Habit because of the lack of Skills. We need to either cut our old cables and replace them with new ones or just build good new cables/habits right from the start.

What do we do going forward? To me this points to:

- the need for coaching, either on site or by reviewing pertinent video

-remembering we have to develop all three circles (just retraining Knowledge won’t do it without the opportunity to develop the Skills)

-being “gentle” with our staff or ourselves when we try to form Habits.

Next time when you decide change your ways or think of asking someone else to change their ways, remember it is not a simple process but definitely achievable and worthwhile.

Nanc will be back next week.

Have a good week

Don Lidster

U.S. pork exports during March totaled 486.6 million pounds, up 6.9% from February, but 0.8% lower than in March 2011. There is a lot of concern that exports to China will drop sharply this year; they have declined each month since November. However, March shipments to China were 22.9 million pounds more than a year ago. During the first quarter of 2012, pork exports were up 15.8% compared to January-March 2011. Pork imports were up 3.2%.

Live hog import from Canada during the first quarter of 2012 totaled 1.44 million head, down 0.8% compared to last year.

USDA says 71% of corn acreage had been planted by May 6. That compares to an average of 47% planted on that date and 32% planted on May 6, 2011. USDA is predicting a record yield of 166 bushels per acre and the most corn acres since 1937. They are predicting the average farm price for corn harvested this fall will be roughly $1.50 per bushel lower than for the 2011 harvest.

USDA is predicting 2012 pork production will be 2.3% higher than last year and 2013 pork production will be 2.3% higher than this year. They expect beef production to decline 3.8% this year and another 2.5% in 2013. In total, red meat and poultry production this year is expected to be down 1% from 2011 with 2013 production up 1% from this year.

Hog prices ended this week lower than the previous Friday. The national average negotiated carcass price for direct delivered hogs on the morning report today was $74.42/cwt, down 95 cents from last Friday. The eastern corn belt averaged $73.82/cwt this morning. Neither the western corn belt nor Iowa-Minnesota had enough hogs sold early Friday morning for a price quote. Peoria had a top today of $51.50 and Zumbrota a top of $50/cwt. The top for interior Missouri live hogs Friday was $55.75/cwt, down 75 cents from the previous Friday.

USDA’s Thursday afternoon calculated cutout value was $80.12/cwt, up $2.02 from the previous Thursday and the highest cutout since March 28. Loins, bellies, butts and hams were all higher this week. The negotiated hog carcass price this morning is 92.9% of the pork cutout value. That is a bit above average, but much more typical than the 100% plus average during April.

Hog slaughter totaled 2.089 million head this week, up 1.0% from the week before and up 5.5% compared to the same week last year. This is the third consecutive week with slaughter well above the level expected based on the last hog inventory survey. Barrow and gilt carcass weights for the week ending April 28 averaged 206 pounds, unchanged from the week before and up one pound from a year ago. The average barrow and gilt live weight in Iowa-Minnesota last week was 276.7 pounds, up 0.6 pounds from a week earlier, up 5.0 pounds from a year ago, and above a year earlier for the 24th consecutive week.

Friday’s close for the May lean hog futures contract was $79.52/cwt, down 28 cents from the previous Friday. The June lean hog futures contract settled at $85.30/cwt, up $1.58 for the week. July hogs ended the week at $85.15; August settled at $85.65/cwt.

Vice President of Agri-Business Capital

Steve has been working for AgStar since 1997 as an Analyst working with Swine clients. His current position is working as a Relationship Manager and helping manage AgStar’s Swine portfolio. Prior to joining AgStar, Steve had 15 years experience as an owner operator of a farrow to finish operation and helped his family with their dairy and crop operations. Steve earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Minnesota State University – Mankato.

Stu Ellis, formerly with University of Illinois Extension, serves as the Farmgateblog.com blogger and editor. Ellis has been a presence in Illinois agriculture for more than thirty years and he brings an impressive array of credentials to his new position.

USDA releases its May Supply and Demand report on Thursday, which is the Department’s initial assessment of U.S. and world crop supply and demand prospects and U.S. prices for the 2012/13 marketing year. It will also present the first calendar-year 2013 projections of U.S. livestock, poultry, and dairy products.  The market has been anticipating the report giving bearish news, which fostered a significant sell-off of commodities on Wednesday.  Let’s look at the potential numbers…

The market anticipated large production and large carryover following the 2012 crop, subsequently July corn dropped 15.75¢, and December corn dropped 11.25¢.  July beans fell 8¢ and November beans declined 7¢.  July wheat fell 15¢ and July 2013 wheat even declined 14¢.

Dow Jones Newswires survey many of the CME traders to get a sense of what they anticipated the May Supply-Demand report would say.  The market is expecting old crop corn stocks to end the marketing year at 758 million bushels, and the 2012 crop to have more than 1.7 billion bushels left over when the next marketing year concludes in August of 2013.  In the Southern hemisphere, Argentine corn production is expected to be 20.7 mmt, and Brazilian corn at 62.7 mmt.

For soybeans, the market is expecting old crop stocks to conclude the marketing year with 221 million bushels on hand, compared to only 170 million bushels of carryout when the next marketing year ends in August 2013.  The trade anticipates Argentine soybean production this past season at 42 mmt and Brazilian soybean production at 65.5 mmt.

The All wheat number expected by the market is 2.196 billion bushels, with winter wheat at 1.634 billion, hard red winter at 990 million bushels, and soft red winter wheat at 413 million bushels.

Keep those numbers in mind when the USDA report is issued at 7:30 a.m. CDT.

By the way, the USDA’s Chief Economist announced several minor format changes in the report:
1) There will no longer be a methyl ester breakout for soybean product supply and use, because of the unavailability of reliable data.  It will be lumped in with domestic disappearance.
2) Vietnam is being added to the list of “major importers” of soybeans.  China and Eastern Europe are being removed as major importers of soybean meal, but Japan is taking their place.  Pakistan is no longer a major importer of soybean oil, but is being replaced with North Africa.

Summary:
For Thursday’s USDA Supply Demand report, the market is anticipating an old crop corn carryout of 758 million, and a new crop carryout of 1.7 billion.  The market is expecting the old crop soybean carryout to be 221 million bushels, but the new crop bean carryout is expected to be 170 million.  New crop wheat production has been pegged by the market as 2.196 billion bushels.  Official numbers will be released at 7:30 Thursday morning.

There’s a lot of buzz in the North American pig industry about recent calls for suppliers of meat to McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King and other, to phase out all but selected use of sow gestation stalls by 2017.

Many people seem to see this as a recent development and blame it all on HSUS, PETA and their like.

I want to tell you about the first time I heard criticism of gestation stalls.

I attended a two day conference in which speaker after speaker criticised modern animal agriculture practices and intensive productions systems. Some speakers described alternative production methods that they felt would be more humane.

The production practices being criticized included: veal crates, battery cages for laying hens, gestation stalls and farrowing crates in pig production. Speakers claimed that use of these systems was purely profit motivated and done at the expense of the welfare of the animals.

Let me highlighted two points about the meeting:

1.       It was not a meeting of animal rights activists, although there were a few activists at the meeting.

It was not a meeting of farmers: there were even fewer farmers than animal activists.

It was a meeting of scientists from all parts of the world: experts in animal behaviour, animal production, and related fields, who were concerned about the welfare implications of modern farming practices. They had gathered together to discuss how agricultural practices should be reviewed from the scientific and ethical point of view.

2.       The meeting did not occur in the last couple of year. The conference was called Bio-Ethics/87 and was held in Montreal, Canada in August of 1987. Yes, it is coming up 25 years ago.

I went to that meeting confident that we were doing a good job of production, management, and animal welfare on our farm, after all, we had good performance to prove it.

I got the wind knocked out of my sails. How could there be such a disconnect between our industry’s reality and the message I was hearing in Montreal?

When they opened the floor for comments I had two points to make:

-          In planning and building our barn 6 years prior we had relied on the advice of researchers, ag advisors, veterinarians, engineers, and other producers. Bases on their advice and our own observations we had chosen to use farrowing crates to reduce pre-wean mortality, and gestation stalls to prevent injuries and regulate feed intake. We had truly believed that these would enhance animal welfare, not diminish it.

-          Farmers can’t work with information they aren’t aware of. If the scientists truly believed animal production practices were wrong and that better alternatives existed, then they should be taking their concerns directly to farmers: not leaving farmers in the dark and then criticizing farmers’ choices behind their backs.  

And in the past 25 years:

The United Kingdom and Sweden have banned the use of sow gestation stalls for several years and bans in other European Union countries will take effect the end of this year. Australia has set a date and so have other jurisdictions.

Researchers have been studying and comparing various sow housing options. Some farmers have found their own reasons to voluntarily opt for group housing systems without external pressure or deadlines to do so. Don and I were among them, stimulated in part by that meeting in Montreal but more so by the inadequacies of the particular gestation stalls we had chosen.

Summary:

Some people in North America want to blame HSUS for the push to ban sow gestation stalls. Yes, HSUS is visible and vocal but even if HSUS were to disappear tomorrow these winds of change would not cease to blow.

I don’t expect everyone to like this message but I’d be doing a disservice not to say it as I see it.

“We cannot the direct the winds but we can adjust our sails” - a magnetic sign on our fridge

That’s it for this week

Take care

Nancy Lidster

I’m getting quite a few requests for ventilation details on new double-wide tunnel wean-finish or grow-finish facilities. In addition, I’ve reviewed the ventilation system as installed at quite a few sites in recent weeks. Unfortunately, the many builders and facility owners still undersize the attic inlet area and end up with higher electricity expense and tunnel curtains opening at colder outside temperatures that expected/desired.

Here are the design details that I use for soffit inlet sizing when double-wide tunnel barns are 102 x 196 in dimensioning.
• 8″ MINIMUM continuous south/east soffit with 8″ clearance at plate. The math becomes:

4-24″ fans (or 6-21″ or some combination) plus 1 36″ plus 1 52″ fan before going into tunnel mode in each room – this is often in the range of 50 cfm/pig or 62,000 cfm/room

 2 rooms = 124,000 cfm from attic
 196 ft long rooms
 124,000 cfm / 400 cfm/sqft soffit = 310 ft2 soffit inlet recommended
 310 ft2 / 196 ln feet = 1.58 ft wide soffit = 19” wide soffit opening

• If you have 8” of south/east soffit (0.67 ft wide), the air velocity when both rooms are in stage 4 ventilation and the north/west soffit is still closed becomes:

 124,000 cfm /(196 ln ft x 0.67 ft) = 950 fpm.

This adds 0.05 static pressure to the system due to the need to pull air this fast thru the soffit. This is more than we want/recommend, but I know I’m lucky if I can get 8” by the time insulation chutes are installed, etc.

• Fans sized on stage 1 so you can get to 2 cfm/pig range for starting single stocked weaned pigs. This may mean turning off one fan and turning off actuated inlets.

• Nothing other than bird netting (1” minimum opening) on soffit openings– no punched metal of any kind.