Peas for seed
Producers considering keeping some of their pea harvest for seeding next year should take special care in preparing them, said Beata Lees, special crops specialist with Alberta Agriculture.
“The first thing is to handle peas early,” Lees said.
“First time growers often cause trouble for themselves at this point. Don’t wait for down time over winter. Clean and handle peas as early as possible.”
Peas are a large seed and prone to splitting and cracking during handling. Even microscopic cracks can affect emergence the following season. Handling peas in the fall, when the moisture content is still high, makes the pea seed less brittle.
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“Peas have to be handled gently,” said Lees. “To help reduce the amount of cracking, slow auger speed and avoid large drops into bins or trucks.”
Studies show handling peas and other large seeded crops in cold weather significantly increases cracking and splitting.
Seed damage also increases as moisture content goes below 14 percent. Seed variety is another factor to consider.
Varieties with a thinner seed coat, such as Express, are more susceptible to mechanical damage.
Ideally, peas could be threshed out starting at 20 percent moisture. They will store safely at 16 percent moisture.
Storing seeds too hot can affect germination. Aeration, a slow cooling process, is often the best way to cool peas. Don’t heat higher than 43 C if keeping peas for seed.
“Producers should only use seed from disease-free fields and always do a germination test on seed after cleaning and handling,” said Lees.
“This testing will help determine if the seed was damaged and to what extent. Poor quality seed is also prone to seed rot. Keep in mind, certified seed is still the best bet.”
– Alberta Agriculture
Reducing finishing costs
Hog producers may be able to reduce food costs by removing vitamin and trace mineral supplements from pigs’ diets three to five weeks before slaughter, saving about $1 per pig.
In a study at the Saskatoon-based Prairie Swine Centre Inc., researchers removed vitamin and trace mineral supplements from the finishing diets of two groups of pigs within three or five weeks before market. Calcium, phosphorus and salt were not removed from the diets. In both cases, there was no effect on pig performance or carcass traits compared to a control group of pigs that continued to eat a fully supplemented diet.
John Patience, president of the centre, said most producers traditionally maintain a safety margin by continuously feeding supplements to their pigs rather than risking a negative impact on the animals’ growth.
However, Patience said the study’s results indicate pigs either have body reserves or turn to other sources for vitamins and minerals, such as those found naturally in the cereal grains in their diets or in the manure in their pens.
Vitamin and trace mineral premixes don’t make up a huge part of the feed bill. Still, Patience estimated producers could reduce their costs by between $8 and $15 per tonne, depending on current prices and each farm’s supplementation levels.
The study shows if producers remove supplements 17 days before slaughter, they can improve their net income by 46 cents per pig. Even better, they can save 98 cents per pig by switching to a vitamin and trace mineral-free diet five weeks before market.
The animals’ average daily weight gain, daily feed, feed conversion efficiency and days to market weren’t affected by either treatment.
As for carcass traits, yields were almost 60 percent with loin thickness averaging 60.6 millimetres and fat averaging 22.2 mm.
The study targeted the finishing phase of production when a pig consumes the most feed. Because the pigs were destined for slaughter, the study didn’t consider the impact on the animals’ reproductive performance.
If animals are being kept for breeding, vitamins and trace minerals should not be removed from the finishing diets. Federal regulations are restrictive in terms of supplementation levels acceptable for commercial feeds. Contact your feed supplier for information on how to adopt this different approach.
– Prairie Swine Centre Inc.
