USDA releases 2009 Prospective Plantings report

U.S. producers intend to plant less in 2009 than in 2008, says University of Illinois Extension Economist Darrel Good and according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Prospective Plantings report released March 31. Planting intentions for all crops included in the survey are 7.8 million acres less than acreage seeded to those crops in 2008. Including acreage of hay intended for harvest, the decline is about 7.6 million.

Declines total as follows:

• 4.5 million for wheat
• 1.3 million for sorghum
• 1 million for corn
• 658,000 for cotton
• 446,000 for sunflowers
• 410,000 for peanuts
• 154,000 for canola 

For wheat, 75% of the acreage reduction is for winter wheat, even though winter wheat seedings are 791,000 acres larger than reported in January. Intended acreage of soybeans included in the report is 306,000 more than planted in 2008. Intended acreage of all oilseed crops is 672,500 less and acreage of feed grains (corn, sorghum, barley, and oats) is 2.4 million less than planted in 2008.

The complete USDA report can be accessed here.

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China approves Lallemand products

Lallemand Animal Nutrition announced that the company has successfully completed the registration process of two of its key microbial based feed additives in the People’s Republic of China.

Alkosel, the company’s premium source of bioavailable selenium, has been recognized safe and effective, and thereby registered for use as a mineral feed supplement. Monogastric specific probiotic bacteria Bactocell (Pediococcus acidilactici CNCM MA 18/5M) has been registered as a microbial biotic feed additive.

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Piglet feed supplements support immune systems

As feed costs rise and the production of ethanol from corn grain increases, swine producers have ramped up their search for new feed supplements for younger swine. According to studies by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists, feeding dried distiller’s grains (DDGS) to piglets can give their immune systems an extra boost.

The U.S. ethanol industry generates an estimated 10-14 million metric tons of DDGS annually from the milling of corn grain that yields fermentable sugars for conversion into fuel alcohol. The majority of DDGS are fed to beef and dairy cattle.

But livestock producers also use DDGS to supplement the diet of older pigs. So Tom Weber, a physiologist at the ARS Swine Odor and Manure Management Research Unit in Ames, Iowa, partnered with research leader Brian Kerr and microbiologist Cherie Ziemer to study the effects of feeding DDGS to young pigs.

For their research on piglets, the team divided weanling pigs into four groups and fed them either a standard control diet or diets supplemented with DDGS, soybean hulls or citrus pulp. After one week, the researchers observed an increase in cytokine expression in the pigs’ small intestine, which they linked to DDGS consumption. Cytokines are chemical messengers that are essential for proper immune function.

This response reinforced findings of previous DDGS studies showing that pigs consuming diets supplemented with DDGS exhibited reduced levels of ileitis, a common inflammation of the small intestine.

Kerr and others have found that adult pigs can be fed with a corn and soy-meal feed that is up to 40% DDGS. However, piglets are given feed with a maximum DDG content of 7.5%, because their growth may be reduced when they consume too much fiber.

Read more about this research in the February 2009 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.

US swine inventories in decline

US swine inventories in nearly all classifications are on the decline, the US Department of Agriculture’s December Hogs and Pigs report shows, say Iowa State University economists John Lawrence and Shane Ellis.

Total hog and pig numbers declined 2.2% to 66.7 million head. The inventory of breeding swine declined 2.4% to 6.1 million head, while market hog numbers were down 2.1% from last year at 60.6 million head.

In Iowa, market hog numbers were up 2.2% at 18.7 million head while sow numbers declined a percent to 1.1 million head. The decreased pig crop in the fourth quarter of 2008 and reduced imports from Canada have driven feeder pig inventories down more than 5%. With farrowing intentions down in the next six months, the retraction of the industry continues, say Lawrence and Ellis.

Mong Reththy Group pork project to include feedmill

The Mong Reththy Group in Cambodia has plans for a pork project that also includes adding a feedmill with a projected output of 330,000 metric tons per year. In addition to boosting local pork production, the project would increase the incomes of corn, cassava and soybean farmers, while creating employment and new opportunities for production, says Kao Phal, director of the Animal Health and Production Department at the Ministry of Agriculture. Mong Reththy has set up a new company called M’s Pig ACMC in association with UK breeder ACMC, with which it has agreed a 20-year franchise deal. ACMC will deliver 600 breeding pigs for a new unit on a five-hectare site in the Prey Nop district of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, which will house a nucleus herd. Eventually this unit will supply enough commercial AC1 sows to produce 1.1 million slaughter pigs per year by 2015. The project also involves a slaughter/process plant for the pigs.

IGC projects feed grain increase

More grains will be used in animal feeds in the 2008/2009 harvest year with production climbing to a record 1,769 million metric tons following a 12% rise in wheat output, says the International Grains Council (IGC).

Because the overall rise in production would exceed the forecast increase in total use, world carry-over stocks in 2008/2009 are projected to recover 24 million metric tons to a level of 307 million metric tons. Approximately 230 million metric tons of grains will be traded worldwide in 2008/2009, representing a decrease of 8 million metric tons. While there will be a marked upturn in wheat trading, this is predicted to be offset by sharp falls in trade in maize and sorghum, says the IGC.

Ethanol producers are forecast to increase their grain consumption to a total of 126 million metric tons, 29 million metric tons more than in 2007/2008. The total for conversion to biofuel is forecast to include 117 million metric tons of maize (corn).

A decline in planting and reduced yields will likely lead to a smaller wheat crop in 2009/2010, despite generally favorable northern hemisphere conditions, says the IGC, but with no significant fall in stocks.

Agromek reports lower attendance

Agromek, the international exhibition of agricultural machinery in Herning, Denmark, was held during the last week of November 2008 and attained a total attendance of 51,601 visitors, including 7,660 foreign guests from 66 countries.

This number is 13,396 lower than Agromek in January 2008.

“Until this year, the exhibition has always been held in January. It is thus only 10 months since we last held Agromek. It is difficult to draw conclusions as to whether this is the reason for the lower attendance or if it is the current situation in the agricultural sector, or perhaps the financial crisis,” states the Chairman of Agromek, Managing Director Peter Hansen, Cormall Agro Holding A/S.

Pig Processing Updates

• Slaughterings in Denmark by Danish Crown fell 4% to 17.9 million pigs in 2007, accounting for 84% of the total Danish output. Danish Crown announced the closure of another 2 of its plants in April this year as competition for the pig supply intensifies.
• Pig processing facilities costing about US$72 million and capable of generating up to 60 000 tons of pork per year as well as 25 000 tons of red meats are planned by Russian meat importer Meatland Food Group. The 2 slaughter plants it operates at present are leased. Construction of the new plant near St Petersburg will start in the second half of 2008 for completion at the end of 2010.

Pig Feeds to Use Against Molds

Feed strategies against molds
Possible pig feeding actions to deal with the mycotoxins in feed grains that are now suspected of damaging pigs’ immune systems as well as causing problems of low feed intake and retarded growth.

Clinical signs of mycotoxicosis in pigs and other farm animals represent only the tip of the iceberg regarding pig health and performance effects due to mycotoxins, warned Professor Johanna Fink-Gremmels from the veterinary faculty at Utrecht University, Netherlands.

Veterinary problems in a 250-sow Norwegian herd have demonstrated the destructive power of toxins from mouldy feed grains. In this case the answer took the form of a dietary treatment. Other possible solutions for pig units to deal with feed contamination issues were outlined recently to an international gathering of scientists specialised in mycotoxin control.

For a variety of reasons, the meeting heard, moulds and their toxic products are affecting an increasing quantity of feed ingredients worldwide. An assessment 2 years ago that mycotoxins could be found in at least 25% of all grains harvested seems now to be an under-estimate. Climate is thought to be one of the factors responsible, along with changes in farming practices and the growing of susceptible crops.

Pig producers in particular should be wary of a possible contamination in the feed diets they use. Speakers at the 3rd World Mycotoxin Forum, which took place at the end of last year in the Netherlands, were agreed that pigs are the most sensitive of the farm animal species in this respect. Five out of the 300 or more known types of mould toxin are regarded as most relevant to agriculture; the pig is rated first on sensitivity for each of them.

That view has been reinforced by scientific advice given to the European Union’s administrators by independent food safety agency EFSA, the forum was told. Referring to major toxins from the globally important fungal genus called Fusarium, it advised that pigs were significantly more sensitive than poultry or cattle to the effects of deoxynivalenol (usually abbreviated as DON) and zearalenone (ZON). Much the same was true for other Fusarium toxins known as fumonisins, for ochratoxin A (OTA) from an Aspergillus fungus and for alkaloids from ergot.

Clinical signs of illness are observed whenever any of these exceeds a threshold level in the pig’s diet. For example, the vomiting caused by DON has given it the common name of vomitoxin, but pigswill start to refuse feed and show retarded growth once its presence goes above 5-10 parts per million. ZON was described to the forum as the classic textbook model of how oestrogen receptors work. It has oestrogenic (hormonal) effects on puberty and fertility when present at more than 1-3ppm. OTA can give rise to kidney damage with a dietary level of just 200 parts per billion. Typically a European problem from contaminated wheat or barley, at higher concentrations this ochratoxin is blamed for a so-called porcine nephropathy in which the kidneys become shrunken and discoloured as well as losing their function.

One difficulty with any discussion of clinical signs and threshold levels, however, is that both sensitivity and effect are influenced by the age or production stage of the pig. Nursery pigs will be far more sensitive than a gestating or lactating sow for the impact of a Fusarium mycotoxin on their appetite, possibly because the sows have an instinctive drive to keep eating in order to fuel the development of their unborn piglets or their milk production after farrowing. Effects can also be delayed, such as the subsequent stillbirths from sows consuming moldy feed in pregnancy or the disrupted endocrine balance in gilts around puberty due to their consumption of zearalenone at an earlier stage.

See the rest of this article: Pig Feeds

When the Pig Feed Fails

Bridging in feed silos is identified as a difficulty that has started to appear more often on US grow-finish units, interrupting the supply of pig feeds to pens.

Nebraska research in the USA has identified a particular risk to the daily weight gain of growing pigs from even quite short interruptions in the feed supply from a bulk storage bin.

A research report published in the USA suggests that pig feeds are seeing shortages that are an increasing problem on American nursery and grow-finish facilities. Referring to the shortages as out-of-feed events, it says some of them are due to the mechanical failures suffered occasionally by any system for distributing pig feeds to pens. But it also points to additional disruptions due to human error affecting a delivery into the bulk storage silo and to the age-old difficulty of materials becoming bridged or stuck inside a bin so they do not flow to the out-take conveyor as desired.

More instances of bridging are being reported, the annual Swine Report from the University of Nebraska comments, as producers continue to reduce the fineness of grind for their complete feed diets in order to improve conversion. In addition to the obvious implications for pigs’ potential growth, the absences of feed resulting from bridging and other factors are a known cause of ulcers in pigs and are suspected of having links to an increased incidence of the haemorrhagic bowel syndrome and ileitis.

But the investigators in Nebraska wanted to check particularly on the longer-term consequences for growth performance from feed breaks on a unit with nursery and grow-finish places. Their earlier work, described in the university’s 2006 Swine Report, had found indications that the impact of an out-of-feed event could be greater for the growing pig than for one in the finishing phase of production. Testing in that instance had been of a period of 20 hours without feed on a random day in each week of a 16-week trial. Virtually all of the reduction in weight gain recorded for the full trial related to the first 8 weeks.

Subsequently, the examination has been widened to cover the more likely scenario in practice, involving temporary interruptions of the pig feed supply on varying occasions in their growing and finishing stages. The out-of-feed events were again staged to occur between midday and 08:00 the next day. Starting 37 days after weaning at 14-21 days old and extending for another 16 weeks, experimental groups had their feeder closed for these 20 hours up to 3 times every 2 weeks.

Once more, it seemed that the sensitivity of the pigs to intervals without feed was age-related. A linear relationship between feeder closures and growth response was detected only in the first 8 weeks of the trial. During that period, daily gain decreased in line with the increasing number of occasions on which feed supplies had been interrupted. Afterwards, however, growth showed no link to the number of out-of-feed events. Measurements across the full duration of the trial did not establish any effect on feed conversion or within-pen variability.

A more revealing pattern appeared when the researchers looked at feed intake patterns after feed supplies had been restored. Clues in this direction had already been seen in the 2006 work. Then, pigs missing feed on a random day each week increased their intakes by 14% in the first 24 hours following restoration during the first 8 weeks of the trial. But this increase soared to 42% in the second 8-weeks period. The testing described by the 2007 Nebraska Swine Report found that in the first 8 weeks even the most affected pigs (those having 2-3 intervals without feed every 2 weeks) responded by eating just 11-18% more in the next 24 hours. The following 8 weeks saw the equivalent groups adding 22-28% to their daily feed intake.

So the take-home message must be that you cannot expect growing pigs to compensate as much as finishing-stage animals for any temporary interruption in their feed supply. Speculation offered by the Nebraska team focuses on the capacity of the pig for taking in more feed. Perhaps the younger animal’s normal appetite is close to the maximum it can eat at any one time. As it ages, on the other hand, intake comes under the influence of a variety of factors and may be increased quite strongly in the short term to compensate for a previous feed-free period.

The scale of the potential impact at growing-pig level remains to be determined, however. The team observes that its out-of-feed events were rather regular for duration and therefore were possibly less influential than a sequence varying in length. Moreover, the timing of the events through the afternoon and at night did not correspond to an accepted view of pigs’ normal eating behaviour beginning around 06:00 and peaking at 14:00. On this basis, the experimental groups may have eaten before the feed break happened so that their response to it was less than if it had occurred, say, in the morning hours.

Nevertheless, there was a clear bottom-line result from the Nebraska testing. Fail to have feed in the bin or to extract it when required, this has indicated, and you will be risking a major drop in growth. Pigs in the trial that had an uninterrupted access to feed gained approximately 840 grams weight per day over the initial 56 days, in growing from about 18kg to 65kg liveweight. Those missing 3 feeding opportunities each 2 weeks over the same period managed only about 754g/day.

They were unable to eat enough to make up for lost ground once the feed supply was resumed.