Fill screens on air seeder tanks
Personal safety and better operation are two good reasons to leave fill screens on an airseeder tank when it’s being filled, says a project engineer at the Alberta Farm Machinery Research Centre.
“It’s tempting not to use the fill screen because it can interfere with the spout and slow down what you auger into the tank,” said Lawrence Papworth. “However, the fill screen is there for proper equipment operation and farm safety.”
Recently, a Saskatchewan farmer was trapped in his airseeder tank when he tried to retrieve a seed bag. Although he didn’t suffer a serious injury, the possibility was there, said Papworth.
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“If the fill screen supplied with the air seeder had been in place, then the farmer wouldn’t have been locked in the tank,” he said.
Most recent air seeder models come with fill screens that fit in the tank opening. The fill screen prevents foreign objects or lumps of fertilizer from entering the tank.
“These clumps, lumps and other debris can damage the air seeder’s metering system or plug the distribution system,” said Papworth. For more information on air seeders contact the Alberta Farm Machinery Research Centre in Lethbridge at 403-329-1212.
– Alberta Agriculture
Carcass quality research
Manitoba Pork est. recently announced that it will commit $80,000 over three years to fund a new study at the Brandon Research Centre that will look at developing innovative methods of assessing carcass quality based on live animal measurements.
Funds provided by groups in the hog industry will be matched by Agriculture Canada.
Manitoba Pork est. is the sole marketing agency for hogs in the province, providing services to over 2,200 producers.
Since 1971, selection strategies for swine improvement have focused on reducing backfat thickness and increasing growth rate.
New selection strategies have been proposed that target backfat thickness, growth rate, and litter size in maternal lines and backfat thickness and growth rate in sire lines. However, with evidence from research that backfat thickness is near its lower limit, researchers are exploring other live animal measurements of carcass quality.
The purpose of the new project is to determine which live animal measurements should be considered as genetic selection criteria and how they can be standardized to a constant live weight. Progeny from the outcrossing of the Yorkshire and Hampshire herds at Brandon will be evaluated.
The first phase of research will focus on developing “real-time ultrasound” methods for accurately measuring live animal carcass traits, such as loin eye area, loin eye depth, backfat thickness, belly thickness, and lean-to-fat ratio in the belly. The data will be scanned from 80 to 115 kilogram live weight animals and subsequently be used to derive separate adjustment factors for breed and sex.
The second phase of research will focus on developing “image analysis” methods for evaluating meat quality in pork chops, ham faces, and bacon/side pork (belly) slices. Quality will be assessed by:
- Color.
- Marbling in the pork chop.
- Loin eye area.
- Fat color.
- Two-toning in the ham face.
- Area of specific muscles and their marbling in the ham face.
- Percentage of lean, fat, and bone in the ham face.
n Percentage of lean and fat in the bacon/side pork.
Results from this research will give hog producers a means of consistently producing carcasses with the enhanced meat quality needed to keep them competitive.
– Agriculture Canada
