The future of animal feeding: towards sustainable precision livestock farming

In the future, production will increasingly be affected by globalization of the trade in feed commodities and livestock products, competition for natural resources, particularly land and water, competition between feed, food and biofuel, and by the need to operate in a carbonconstrained economy, says Nutreco’s Dr. Leo den Hartog. Moreover, he suggests, livestock production will be increasingly affected by consumer and societal concerns and legislation. A way forward in the development of profi table modern pig production will be the concept of sustainable precision livestock farming, den Hartog believes. This aims to integrate the technological approach of precision livestock farming with the social and ecological aspects. Optimization of productivity and effi ciency will play a crucial role, as well as maximization of the profi t for all stakeholders in the pork chain, he says. He discusses the necessity for and rationale behind the concept, with a special focus on animal feedin

Invloed Mond- en Klauwzeer op het Praktijkcentrum Veehouderij

De uitbraak van Mond en Klauwzeer in Nederland heeft ingrijpende gevolgen voor de samenleving

Relation between nutrition and fertility in pigs.

A review of experiments on the effect of energy and protein intake on fertility in gilts suggested that a high energy intake shortly before oestrus (flushing) increased ovulation rate. Although high energy intake gave more ovulations than low energy intake, embryonic mortality was greater. The most suitable sequence during rearing, flushing and early pregnancy seemed to be low, high and low energy, respectively. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission

Reproductive traits in primiparous sows in relation to feeding level.

To estimate the effect of plane of nutrition and induction of oestrus with 400 IU of pregnant mare serum and 200 IU of human chorion gonadotropin, 113 primiparous Dutch Landrace sows were given 4 or 2.5 kg feed daily from weaning to oestrus. The feed included maize 12, barley 18, soya bean oilmeal 15, wheat bran 15, cassava pellets 13, maize gluten feed 5, lucerne meal 8, citrus pulp 5.5, molasses 5, animal protein 1.1%, minerals and vitamins. The number of sows in oestrus within 21 days of weaning was 69 (61%). Within 7 days of induction of oestrus on day 21, 41 sows were in oestrus (36%). On day 21, 37 (65%) of the better-fed sows were in oestrus and 32 (53%) of the poorer-fed group. The interval from weaning to spontaneous oestrus was 9.1 and 8.2 days, respectively, and ovulation rate 15.2 and 14.8. Size of the sexual organs was not affected by feeding level. Rate of gain of sows during the interval from weaning to oestrus was influenced by feeding level: +4.1 kg and -2.3 kg, respectively, for the sows in oestrus within 21 days of weaning. Sows with induced oestrus shed significantly more ova than did sows in which oestrus was not induced (21.7 and 15.0, respectively). Loss of weight, loss of heart girth, and loss of backfat thickness during previous lactation (absolute and relative) did not differ for sows with or without induction, but was higher for sows with a spontaneous oestrus between 10 and 21 days after weaning than for sows with an oestrus within 10 days after weaning. Ovulation rate was not affected by weight at weaning or at oestrus, weight loss during lactation, gain during the interval from weaning to oestrus or size of the preceeding litter at birth. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission

Een varkenshouderij 'handelsmissie' naar Oost-Azie

Diverse landen in Oost-Azië beleven momenteel een sterke economische groei. Ook de varkenshouderij maakt in deze landen een stormachtige ontwikkeling door

Vergelijking van houderijsystemen belangrijk voor de sector

Het welzijn van landbouwhuisdieren gaat een steeds belangrijkere rol spelen, De EG heeft richtlijnen opgesteld waarin minimumeisen ten aanzien van de huisvesting van varkens zijn weergegeven. De nationale Gezondheid en Welzijnswet stelt eveneens eisenaan onder andere de huisvesting van varkens, die verder gaan dan de Brusselse regelgevin

Congres N-uitstoot in de varkenshouderij

Van 8 tot en met 11 juni 1993 heeft in Doorwerth een internationaal congres plaatsgevonden over de N-uitstoot in de varkenshouderij. Dit congres was georganiseerd door het Proefstation voor de Varkenshouderij, de Landbouwuniversiteit (Vakgroep Veevoeding), TNO (ILOB) en DL0 (IMAG en IWO)

Individual piglets' contribution to the development of tail biting

Conflicting hypotheses exist about the contribution of individual pigs to the development of a tail-biting outbreak, but there is limited quantitative information to support or dismiss them. This study aims to quantify the development of tail-biting behaviour at pen and individual piglet level, before and after the first visible tail damage. Video recordings of 14 pens with tail-biting outbreaks and individually marked weaned piglets were used to observe tail-biting incidents (TBIs; piglet biting a penmate’s tail). When visible tail damage was first observed in a pen (i.e. day of tail biting outbreak; D0), the video recordings of the previous 6 (till D-6) and the following 6 days (till D6) were analysed every other day for TBIs and the identities of the biter and bitten piglet were recorded. The average TBIs per individual piglet (within each pen) per observation day were analysed to quantify the development of tail-biting behaviour and to identify pronounced biters and/or bitten piglets. The (absence of) coherence for TBIs in a pen was used to test whether biters preferred a specific penmate. There was an exponential increase in the intensity (linear on log scale) of the TBIs from an average of 0.7 bites/h at D-6 to 2.3 bites/h at D6. An additional negative quadratic component suggests that a plateau for tail-biting behaviour was reached by the end of the observation period. Before any visible tail damage was observed (i.e. before D0), 82% of the piglets performed and 96% of them received tail bites. After D0, the figures were 99% and 100%, respectively. One or a few pronounced biters could be identified in almost all pens. These biters already showed more tail biting at D-6 than their penmates. Furthermore, these biters showed a greater increase in tail-biting behaviour during the observation period than the average scores of their penmates. In contrast, there was no apparent increase in the receipt of bites among the piglets that had already been bitten more than their penmates at D-6. Finally, there was no significant coherence between biters and bitten piglets, indicating that biters showed no preference for biting particular penmates, even when some of them had a damaged tail. These results show that, by using observations of TBIs, possible biters or bitten piglets can already be identified 6 days before tail damage is first apparent in a pe

Variability in wheat: factors affecting its nutritional value

Wheat is a common raw material used to provide energy in broiler diets. Its apparent metabolisable energy and its influence on broiler performance varies between wheat samples. Reasons for that variability can be classified as intrinsic (variety, chemical composition) and extrinsic factors (growing conditions, storage, etc.), both of which affect nutrient digestibility and availability. However, these factors are not always considered when formulating the diets for broiler chickens. Moreover, research through the years has questioned the relation between wheat AME and animal performance. This review aims to describe factors that influence the observed variability in wheat nutritive value for broiler chickens by considering origin (variety, growing conditions and post-harvest storage), chemical composition of the grain (carbohydrates and protein) and the broiler chicken