By Dylan DaCosta originally published by New Hamburg Independent
“Our government is pleased to support the pork sector with this investment. This investment in research in animal health and welfare helps respond to the interests of consumers and will help put more money in the pockets of our producers,” said Lawrence MacAulay, Canada’s Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, in the funding’s announcement earlier in 2017.
“I really applaud the federal government for taking money and saying that we really want to make sure the research happening is meaningful,” said Stewart Cressman, a Wilmot farmer who chairs Swine Innovation Porc, the not-for-profit group that facilitates research in the Canadian swine sector.
“We want to make sure knowledge gets transferred to the users”
Swine Innovation Porc works with the people in government, academia and the industry who need to partner on this research. The goal is to enhance the profitability of the Canadian pork industry and bring the latest innovations to the market.
The current batch of study is done by nearly 30 researchers, with more than a dozen universities and research centres involved.
With extra funding coming so late in the window — the five-year program concludes in about a year — it gives researchers a chance to delve deeper into existing projects where funding had ran out.
“It’s not practical to start new research, but there is existing research that can use the funds,” said Cressman. “There are things, based on the preliminary results, that can look into even more with extra money.”
One area that will now get additional research is the idea of lining slat flooring in hog barns with a pour-on rubber compound, to see if it can reduce lameness in pigs. Original research had looked just at the design of the slat itself, but the latest government funds will now allow a deeper look into adding a rubberized coating.
Another research project involves looking into the diet of pigs at the nursery stage — research out of the University of Guelph has found that placing pigs on a “dry” diet (as opposed to a complex diet with milk and proteins) is cheaper without having a significant impact on how many days it takes for a pig to get to market.
A grading system (similar to that of beef) is also being tested, with new technologies that could evaluate internal qualities of the meat. If these tools can accurately read the level of marbling (higher levels of fat end up costing more in a restaurant) then meat could be graded in a single, double or triple A category.
All of these things can impact farmers across the country, including right here in Wilmot and Wellesley. Some research takes a couple of years before new techniques become commonplace, while other things are able to be implemented right away.
And of course, with research comes the need to actually get that information to those who are going to benefit from it, and to get them involved with the process — the group calls this a “knowledge transfer.”
“We’re not doing research just for the sake of research,” said Cressman. “We want to make sure knowledge gets transferred to the users.”
The federal government has invested almost $15 million dollars in total to this type of swine research dating back to 2010. Back then, the Swine Cluster 1 research program began with 14 different research projects on topics like nutrition, animal welfare and genomics. In 2013, the Swine Cluster 2 began and now this latest $1.8 million will further fund that research.
Research in this cluster concludes in March of 2018, which will allow another batch of new research projects to begin.
Source: Meatbusiness