The forgotten nutrient
Efficient water management is vital to any swine unit.
To improve water quality, clean and sanitize water lines at least once a year to remove bacteria, sludge and rust. This will also help maintain proper flow and pressure.
- Water for the very young piglet
Many producers do not provide fresh water in the farrowing pen because they assume piglets get all their liquid from sows’ milk.
However, if high-quality creep feeds are offered before weaning, water is needed to help cope with the extra solid-food intake. Water assists in both digestion and the removal of digestive waste products.
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Dehydration is an underestimated killer of young pigs at weaning. As soon as the sow is removed, the piglet needs to know where to get the 350 to 400 mL of water it needs every day to survive.
Providing a piglet waterer at the “wet” end of the pen, away from the feeder, helps train the piglets to dung away from their feed and sleeping area.
Well-designed nipple waterers or water pans are best at this age. Water pans designed so that the piglet can immerse its mouth work best, as baby pigs are curious and have a strong sucking reflex.
* Water for young pigs
- Water for young pigs
Waterers for newly weaned pigs should be of the same type used in the farrowing crate but set at the correct height. Dehydration is very rapid if scours develop at or soon after weaning. .
Correct water pressure and flow rates are also important. Research shows that newly weaned pigs can comfortably swallow 550 mL of water in 70 seconds; feeder pigs take 50 seconds and sows and boars 35 seconds. Flow rates should be adjusted to avoid waste.
* Waterers for older pigs
- Waterers for older pigs
The correct angle and setting is important to ensure water goes over the pig’s tongue and down the throat. One waterer should be available for each 10 to 12 pigs in a pen. For sows, a water nipple located in a wrap-around trough helps prevent spillage.
– Manitoba Swine Update
New canaryseed disease
Last fall, many growers complained of inexplicably low yields and lower-than-average bushel weights from their canaryseed fields. Septoria leaf mottle caused these losses, said David Kaminski, provincial plant disease specialist.
“With 500,000 acres sown to canaryseed in Saskatchewan this year, it’s certain that many fields have been sown on, or adjacent to, last year’s canaryseed stubble,” he said.
“Such fields must be considered high risk with respect to septoria leaf mottle.”
On close inspection, symptoms of the disease include a great number of pycnidia within the diseased leaf.
“Pycnidia are small, black, spore-manufacturing factories that look like pepper sprinkled on the leaf. These pycnidia are actually embedded in the leaf and, when they’re wet, they ooze golden brown globs of spores.”
Lower leaves shaded by a dense canopy may also have green islands – spots of infected leaf area that stay green as the rest of the leaf yellows.
Although septoria leaf mottle on canaryseed was first identified in 1988, it wasn’t until last fall that the potentially destructive impact on the crop was realized.
For this reason, all that is know about the disease is it is residue- borne. If discovered, nothing can be done to treat the crop at this time.
– Saskatchewan Agriculture
