Estimation of Production Losses associated with Short Term Growth Rate Reduction and Sub-Optimal Thermal Conditions on Pig Farms Using Auspig Simulation Software
Various technologies have been developed for measuring aspects of pig production that might indicate suboptimal environment.Suboptimal conditions can be associated with reduction of feed intake and ultimately reduction in average daily gain.Change of climate in piggery buildings can affect the performance of animals on a short term via air speed, air temperature,skin wetness, feed intake and type of floor.Decline in growth rate, caused by reduced feed intake in the last 14 days of the growth period, was investigated in two pens of the same piggery building.Auspig computer simulation model was used to explore the financial impact of this short term Average Daily Gain (ADG) reduction on the expected profit per pig.The modelling indicated that a growing pig experiencing 5 days below Lower Critical Temperature loses approximately 10g of live weight gain per day or $2/pig and growing pigs experiencing 5 days above Upper Critical Temperature loses approximately 30g of live weight gain per day or $5.75/pig over the growing period.If the pigs were to be marketed 14 days earlier to avoid the observed growth rate reduction, profitability would be +/-$2.50 per pig depending on the size of growth rate reduction.The reasons for less than expected profit increase include the (1) reduced feed usage (which tend to be up to 65-70% of all production cost), (2) fixed labor, (3) infrastructure and (4) housing costs.Thus early marketing as a loss reduction strategy on pig farms might not always work as effectively as expected.
information and communications technology commercial farms animal welfare biological models piggery pig farming thermal assessment
Sara Willis John Black Thomas Banhazi
Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, PO Box 102, Toowoomba QLD 4350 John L Black Consulting, PO Box 4021 Warrimoo, NSW, Australia NCEA and HES, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba Campus, QLD, Australia
国际会议
The First Asian Conference on Precision Livestock Farming (2016 PLF-Asia)(首届亚洲智慧畜牧业国际研讨会)
北京
英文
45-52
2016-09-09（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）