It’s not easy to explain a year’s worth of research in 13 minutes, but agricultural scientists at the University of Manitoba recently gave it the old college try.
On Sept. 25, the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment (NCLE) hosted its first open house at the university’s Glenlea Research Station 15 kilometres south of Winnipeg.
More than 125 people attended the open house, and during the afternoon tour the trailer used to transport people around the centre was so packed that the hitch to a half-ton truck dragged on the ground.
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Academics and the general public came to learn more about the centre, where scientists have studied manure processing, animal productivity and environmental stewardship since it was created two years ago.
The tour was divided into six stops, at which researchers rapidly summarized their work with hogs, cattle and manure digestion before visitors moved on to the next station.
The most popular stop was the hog barns, where U of M scientists operate two 130-sow, farrow to finish operations. One is a conventional barn, with liquid manure and a slatted floor. The other is an alternative barn with animals housed on straw and producing solid manure.
Visitors were not allowed inside the barns for biosecurity reasons, but sows could be seen from the door of the alternative barn.
Centre staff say they are impressed with the results seen so far in the alternative barn.
“In the conventional barn you’re looking at a mortality rate, or culling rate, that’s 30 percent higher than here (the alternative barn),” said swine technician Jody Phillipe.
In addition, sows in the alternative barn are producing more piglets and gaining weight at a faster rate.
“We’re looking at 0.8 to a full pig weaned more per sow,” Phillipe said.
She said the alternative barn is producing healthier pigs because hogs on straw have less stress.
“Look at animals in here,” said Phillipe, pointing to the alternative barn.
“Did you see anyone fighting? You see those girls foraging around in that straw …. The sows being comfortable in their environment, they’re not stressed and so they’re producing better milk for the piglets.”
Phillipe said the results are not surprising because the U of M has operated a pig barn with straw housing for nine years.
“We didn’t have anything to compare it to. Now that we’ve got this facility (with two barns), we have actually data we can keep track of.”
The alternative hog barn impressed Glen Koroluk, a community organizer in Manitoba for the Beyond Factory Farming Coalition.
“It’s encouraging … back to the basics,” said Koroluk, who is one of the most vocal critics of Manitoba’s hog industry.
“And the people who gave the presentation seem pretty positive. No disease problems and the system works …. That’s promising.”
