Pharmhouse Summer Student Swine Experience Program Exposes Swine Veterinary Students to Swine Veterinary Practitioners

Sep 30, 2024

A Steinbach, Manitoba based Swine Veterinarian says the hands-on exposure to pigs provided to veterinary students through the Pharmhouse Summer Student Swine Experience Program is invaluable.The Western College of Veterinary Medicine Pharmhouse Summer Student Swine Experience Program places first and second year veterinary students into swine veterinary practices for hands-on experience working with swine during the summer.

Dr. Blaine Tully, a practitioner and partner with Swine Health Professionals, says his practice has hosted students during the summer for many years informally and this summer it hosted two students through the Pharmhouse Program.

Quote-Dr. Blaine Tully-Swine Health Professionals:

Both students would have said, coming into the summer, "I don't know anything about swine practice.I don't know if it's going to lead to any career choices for me," which, by the end of the summer has turned into, "yea, I would consider swine in my future at some level."

It's beneficial having that hands-on experience because, in the swine sector, it's really hard to get experience.Unless you are raised on a pig farm, through biosecurity and other measures we do a really good job of keeping people out of farms, including people that are trying to learn.

I think, as a swine veterinarian and I've been doing this for many years, we kind of take for granted what we've learned over the years.Certainly, we didn't learn everything in the first summer we went into practice but having that hands-on experience kind of gives them a glimpse of not only what the veterinarian is faced with as a swine veterinarian but also, if they choose to take a career in swine practice, really understand their client base at a level that they wouldn't understand if they hadn't actually physically gone and washed farrowing crates or injected nursery piglets or loaded cull sows onto a semi-trailer.
That experience is just invaluable.

Dr. Tully says participation in the program was positive for the veterinarians who were exposed to the students and vice versa and he looks forward to continuing to foster that kind of exposure next summer and in summers beyond for the next generations of swine veterinarians.

Source : Farmscape.ca

Video: Turning Plant Defense Into a Management Strategy

Turning Plant Defense Into a Management Strategy

Understanding how a plant responds to stress is one thing.

Using that knowledge to make better management decisions is another.

Systemic acquired resistance, or SAR, is the plant's more direct defense response. When stress or infection occurs, the plant begins signaling throughout its system and preparing defensive compounds.

But if we know that response exists, can we help prepare the plant before the stress arrives?

The answer starts with understanding what triggers the response and what the plant needs to carry it out.

The Trigger and the Fuel

Salicylic acid plays an important role in triggering the SAR pathway.

Think of it as turning the truck on.

The engine may be running, but it still needs fuel to do the work.

In this case, manganese plays an important role in supporting the enzyme systems involved in the plant's defensive response.

This makes manganese status an important part of the conversation. Whether a producer is using tissue testing, sap analysis, or simply scouting for visible deficiency symptoms, the goal is to make sure the plant has adequate manganese available.

Manganese is required in relatively small amounts, but that does not make its role small.

If the plant receives a signal to defend itself but lacks the nutrition needed to support that response, it may struggle to carry out the process efficiently.

The trigger matters.

The fuel matters too.

Prepare Before the Stress Arrives

The best time to think about stress management is before the plant is overwhelmed.

Once a crop is already struggling, management can quickly turn into a game of catch-up.

This is similar to nitrogen management. Once a plant becomes severely deficient, correcting the problem does not necessarily erase the time and yield potential already lost.

Plant defense can work the same way.

Low-rate, targeted approaches designed to support the SAR pathway may fit best ahead of an expected stress event rather than after significant damage has already occurred.

That requires producers to think about predictable stress.

We may not know exactly what the weather will do tomorrow, but we generally know summer heat is coming. We know certain field conditions increase disease pressure. We know a herbicide application can temporarily stress a crop as the plant processes the chemistry.

Even a properly timed and labeled herbicide application can create a temporary response in the plant.

That does not mean the herbicide is bad.

Weeds can create significantly more yield loss than the temporary stress caused by controlling them.

The question is not whether we should eliminate every stressor.

The question is whether we can better prepare the plant to manage necessary and predictable stress.

Not All Stress Is Bad

Stress is a normal part of plant growth.

A perfectly stress-free environment does not exist in the field.

In fact, some stress is necessary for normal plant development. A plant responds to wind, temperature, moisture, sunlight, and countless other environmental signals throughout the season.

The environment is stress.

The plant's job is to manage it.

Problems begin when the stress load becomes greater than the plant's ability to respond.

Extreme heat, drought, high salt concentrations, disease pressure, and even certain management practices can add to that load.

This is where understanding SAR becomes useful.

Instead of waiting until the plant is visibly struggling, producers can begin identifying periods when stress is likely and make management decisions around those windows.

ISR Starts With the Soil

While SAR is a more direct defense response, induced systemic resistance, or ISR, brings the conversation back to soil health.

The longevity of a farm is closely connected to the health of its soil.

Carbon plays a major role because it supports biological life within the soil. Bacteria, fungi, and other organisms interact with plant roots and influence how the plant grows, accesses nutrients, and prepares for stress.

This is why soil health cannot be reduced to one product or one application.

It is a system.

Keeping living plants in the field longer can support biological activity. Cover crops may fit some operations. Better water management can improve soil conditions.