Pig notes May 2009

Correct slap marking of pigs is important.  Slap marks are used not only to identify pigs for grading and payment, but also for the Salmonella and health monitoring schemes and traceability.  In the factory, pigs pass inspectors very quickly and it is important that the slap marks are easy to read. However, inspectors at Dunbia, Ballymena sometimes find it difficult to read slap marks on some pigs.  A similar problem in Scotland led Quality Meat Scotland to carry out a trial comparing the use of either paste or ink to slap mark pigs.  Pigs were slapped in the finishing pens using either black ink or black paste.  The slap marker was dipped in ink or paste for every slap mark.  Photographs were used to grade the clarity of slap marks from A to D, with A being excellent, B very good, C good and D faint.  Of the 68 pigs slapped with black ink 100 percent graded A for clarity.  Of the 62 pigs slapped with paste, 16 graded B, 25graded C and 21 graded D.  Based on this information, staff at Dunbia, Ballymena carried out a similar small scale trial comparing ink and paste.  The results, which I think speak for themselves, can be seen in the photographs below.  As a result, staff at Dunbia, Ballymena now recommend that all their producers slap mark their pigs with ink just behind the fleshy part of the right shoulder.

The Scottish trial also showed that there is no difference in the clarity of marks where pigs are slapped one week before slaughter or on the day of slaughter when using ink and the Ketchum slap marker.

Ink

Paste

CAFRE recently held workshops on energy efficiency on pig units. During discussions I realized that some pig farmers are not on the Farm Nightsaver tariff. The general rule of thumb is, if at least 11percent of electricity is used at night, it will pay you to change to the Farm Nightsaver tariff. The vast majority of pig units use at least this amount of electricity at night and could therefore save money by changing tariffs. At present the day rate for the Nightsaver tariff is 15.65p/kWh and the night rate 6.86p/kWh. The single all day rate for the Farm Popular tariff is 15.65p. Although the standard charge for the Nightsaver tariff is £50/year more, most pig farms will save money by changing tariffs.

At the workshop I was also surprised to learn that on many pig units, lighting uses more energy than ventilation. Providing efficient lighting is therefore another area where money can be saved. On some farms tungsten bulbs are still used for lighting. Although they are cheap, light instantly and are dimmable, 96 percent of the energy is given off as heat. Replacing these with compact fluorescent lamps will save money immediately. The lamp life of tungsten bulbs is approximately 1000 hours compared to compact fluorescent lamps which have a lamp life five times longer. More importantly, compact fluorescent lamps are five to six times more efficient and will pay for themselves in a very short time. As an example, a unit using 50 100 watt bulbs for one hour/day will save £228/year by replacing them with 50 watt compact fluorescent lamps. A saving worth making! Tubular fluorescent lamps are also very efficient and are more suited for medium to large sized rooms. They have an average life of 9,000 to 15,000 hours and use 0.4 to 0.8 kWh/pig. For efficiency use the T8 or T5 tube instead of the T12 tube.