A Comparison of Intrauterine and Cervical Artificial Insemination Catheters on Farrowing Rate and Litter Size in Artificially Mated Sows

The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of artificial insemination (AI) catheter type on litter size and farrowing rate. No performance difference was found between sows artificially inseminated using intrauterine or intracervical methods. Since intrauterine catheters typically are more expensive, there is an economic advantage for the more commonly used intracervical method of artificial insemination in the present study

Cull Sow Feeding Management

The decision to cull a sow from the breeding herd typically occurs after weaning due to poor lactation performance, lameness or if she fails to breed or conceive. Once the decision to cull a sow from the breeding herd has been made, a producer must decide to either immediately market the sow or to increase marketable body weight by feeding her for a period of time. The decision to feed cull sows to add additional body weight is not a simple decision. Many factors such as current cull sow market prices, available housing space, feed cost, and health of the animal contribute to this decision [1]. Revenue from marketing cull sows contributes to the profitability of pork operations, therefore much care should be placed on deciding when to market cull sows

The Pulsed Neutron Beam EDM Experiment

We report on the Beam EDM experiment, which aims to employ a pulsed cold neutron beam to search for an electric dipole moment instead of the established use of storable ultracold neutrons. We present a brief overview of the basic measurement concept and the current status of our proof-of-principle Ramsey apparatus