Page 6 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Australasian Pig Science Association (Inc)
APSA 2021
18TH BIENNIAL CONFERENCE
Sofitel Brisbane, Australia
15th - 18th November 2021
Mark these dates in your calendar
15th - 18th November 2021
The Australasian Pig Science Association
is pleased to announce that the 2021 APSA Biennial Conference will be held at the
Sofitel Brisbane, QLD, Australia and online
Registrations Open
brisbane australia
REGISTRATION TYPE
Early Bird
Full
APSA MEMBER
Lorem ipsu
Full $825.00
m
$1,125.00
Day $455.00
$555.00
Student
$380.00
$430.00
Virtual
$495.00
$595.00
NON MEMBER
Full
$1,025.00
$1,325.00
Day
$555.00
$655.00
Student
$430.00
$480.00
Virtual
$595.00
$695.00
Visit the website for more details
www.apsa.asn.au
For ileal and faecal digestible energy assessment, pigs are surgically fitted with a simple T-piece cannula.
Progress assessing feed ingredients
ENERGY is a costly part of the diet.
bration is still growing and regions such as North America, Latin American and Asia predominantly use maize in pig diets. Data collection con- sistent over the past 25 years
For a cereal grain fed to pigs, 1 MJ/kg of available energy equates to $20-25 per tonne when wheat is valued at $300/tonne.
Today we feed our pigs using least cost diet for- mulations, applying pre- cise digestible energy values to cereal grains, which can constitute up to 70 percent of the diet.
composition of the grain over predicted the en- ergy value of low faecal DE grains, as well as not discriminating between grain type or grain sam- ples – as an example, the National Research Council of USA 2012 cal- culation.
This study design helps reduce the variation due to experimental condi- tions.
For ileal and faecal DE assessment, pigs are surgically fitted with a simple T-piece cannula.
It is precision farming at its best, optimising en- ergy utilisation and re- ducing production costs.
To date, the pig DE calibrations contains six different grain types from approximately 400 different samples tested on three pig genotypes in four different research institutions.
To facilitate the collec- tion of ileal digesta and faeces, pigs are trans- ferred into metabolism cages.
Energy values are rap- idly obtained by scanning whole grains with near infrared technology.
The intensive livestock industries required ac- curate measures of grain quality in order to pur- chase consistent high- quality feed grains.
The UM study will add to a large complex experi- ment, each study joined by connectivity grains.
The samples of digesta and faeces undergo sub- sequent chemical analysis and gross energy meas- urements.
We can now track pig DE values as they come into the mill and formu- late accordingly.
The Premium Grains for Livestock Program began in 1996 and one of its goals was to determine a more rational procedure to accurately predict the available energy content of cereal grains for live- stock.
This experimental de- sign allows for continuous updating of the calibra- tion to ensure the latest grains fed to pigs are in- cluded in the calibration. Grains are carefully selected for each experi- ment
The pigs – about 25kg – are on test for approx- imately 70 days and in that time are fed different treatments diets.
Knowing more about your grain is an enabler.
Treatment diets are cold pressed pelleted and con- sist predominantly of the test grain with a mineral vitamin premix.
Diets become more cost effective with production flows, more uniform and predictable.
The grain samples will be sent to the NSW De- partment of Primary In- dustry in Wagga Wagga for NIR scanning using the same machine from previous experiments.
Howwegothereisa good story and involves industry foresight, excel- lent science and the appli- cation of NIR technology. Early days of grain as- sessment for livestock
The agricultural in- dustry had adopted NIR technology in the early 1980s and in 1996, with the aid of a Foss 6500 NIR instrument, the PGLP began its first pig DE study to develop the in vivo energy calibrations that would transform how we assess grain quality today.
The effect of environ- ment – growing condi- tions – on the energy value of grains for live- stock is often greater than the effect of cultivar.
The spectrographs from each sample, the associ- ated wet chemistry and gross energy values will be analysed by a statisti- cian and grain reference values will be prepared for the calibration up- grade.
Traditionally, feed grains have been traded on the basis of their pro- tein content, test weight kg/hl and screenings con- tent.
The original PGLP cali- brations contained only a few representative sam- ples of weather damaged and pinched grains, and no triticale or maize sam- ples.
However, energy assess- ment was not part of grain quality assessment and therefore not closely as- sociated with traditional trading measures.
A little over 100 grain samples were used to es- tablish the PGLP calibra- tions – which were ac- quired by the Pork CRC – and continued to add to the data set through a series of pig DE studies.
Subsequent experiments by the Pork CRC con- tained a wider range of cereal grains from Aus- tralia, including triticale and maize as well as natural and artificially weather damaged grains.
Today, a feed mill re- ceives a delivery of wheat, a sample is taken to be NIR scanned, the spectre file uploaded and read by a computer and before the driver is back in his seat to dump the load, the AusScan Online energy calibrations appear on a computer screen.
We know that DE values of cereal grain vary widely within and be- tween grain types.
Today, the current Aus- Scan Online calibrations are the most accurate method of predicting pig DE values for cereal grains.
Assessing the DE value of cereal grains in the mid-1990s involved a calculation applied to the Grain Trade Australia test weight measure, or a prediction equation devel- oped from the chemical composition of the grain.
These upgrades served to improve the robustness of the calibrations.
And believe it or not, there is more to do.
Not just another pig DE study
In the UM study we are looking to include more maize samples as inter- national use of the cali-
Surely that is impres- sive.
Page 6 – Australian Pork Newspaper, October 2021
Using prediction equa- tions based on chemical
These are known as connectivity grains and comprise about 30 per- cent of tested samples per experiment.
www.porknews.com.au
Both measures had their limitations.
The University of Mel- bourne, supported by the Australasian Pork Re- search Institute Limited, is about to start the thirty- fourth pig DE study.
The test weight is a measure of density and low-density grains have low faecal DE content, which made sense as this is likely due to low starch and high fibre content.
Yes, there have been 33 earlier studies!
However, for grains higher than the GTA target weight there was very poor differentiation of faecal DE values be- tween samples.
The individual experi- ments are linked by grain samples used in earlier experiments.
To the PGLP pioneers, it’s gold.