Page 6 - Australian Pork Newspaper

AUSTRALIAN PORK LIMITED
ADVANCE NOTICE OF 2020 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The Annual General Meeting of Australian Pork Limited (ABN 83 092 783 278) (APL) will be held on Thursday 19 November 2020 commencing at 12.30pm (Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time) at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, 1 Convention Centre Place, Melbourne, Victoria , 30 06.
The business of the Annual General Meeting will include:
• receiving and considering the nancial statements of the company, together with the reports of the Directors and Auditor in respect of year ended 30 June 2020
• appointing the company Auditor for 2020–2021 and setting their remuneration
• voting to amend the APL Constitution to allow the removal of an APL Delegate under reasonable circumstances
• electing two producer Directors
• ratifying the appointment of three specialist Directors
• considering resolutions proposed to the company by Members and Delegates prior to the annual return date (7 September 2020).
The APL Annual Report will be made available on the APL website and relevant meeting papers will be circulated to Members, Associate Members, Delegates, Directors and the Auditor no less than 28 days prior to the Annual General Meeting.
For the purposes of determining a Member’s voting rights, if the annual Pig Slaughter Levy Amount paid by a Member has changed since last reported to APL, or if a Member wishes to revoke the standing consent associated with their PigPass Declaration, the Member may provide a new statutory declaration to APL prior to the return date.
If you have any questions about this process, please contact APL’s Corporate Services Executive, Nikki Watson, on 02 6270 8814 or nikki.watson@australianpork.com.au
Feeding gilts for a
lifetime of reproductive
performance
IN last month’s article, I wrote about a trend of gilts entering the mating unit with too little back fat coverage, despite being the right weight.
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This is occurring due to excess protein require- ments in their diet, and it affects their reproductive capability in the mating unit and beyond.
The current DanBred recommendations are that gilts should be between 12-15mm and 130-150kg at their first mating.
first parity sow – that is, not just their body condi- tion score at exit of the farrowing unit.
piglets per litter.
SEGES nutritionist
This should be when they are 230-250 days old and at their second or third heat.
Feeding a high-protein diet to gilts in the late rearing period from 19 weeks not only risks pro- ducing an animal with a low back fat depth but increases the risk of leg injury and joint disease due to the high growth rate.
Thomas Sønderby Bruun investigated feed strate- gies to increase back fat depth in lean replacement gilts in Danish herds, and recently presented his research at the 2020 SEGES Feeding Seminar.
It is important gilts have enough fat coverage at their first mating because it gets harder for them to put it on during their lifetime, and it will affect their reproductive capa- bility.
This also contributes to the first parity cull rate and is another reason to avoid a high-protein diet in the late rearing period.
He introduced a method termed ‘lynfedning’, meaning rapid fattening, which can be used to in- crease back fat depth be- fore mating, where lean gilts are fed a diet of low protein – maximum of 90g of digestible crude protein per feed unit and maximum 4g of digest- ible lysine per feed unit – and a high daily feed in- take of 3.2-3.5 feed units per day to encourage fat deposition.
For example, a gilt that has too little back fat at first mating is more likely to be culled after her first litter.
Previous studies of sow reproductive perfor- mance have shown a cor- relation between back fat depth at mating and the number of total born and total live born.
As there is little oppor- tunity for her to gain back fat – rather than just re- cover body condition fol- lowing her first farrowing – there is even further risk of her being culled following her second or third parity.
A Danish study by Bruun et al 2020, which examined the effect of feeding strategy on back fat depth and subsequent reproductive perfor- mance, has confirmed this in gilts.
Following the mating period, it is important to remember to not feed too much protein in the ges- tation unit because this has the same effect on the gilt – it will result in muscle and not fat depo- sition.
The only way to accu- rately know and monitor the back fat depth is to regularly scan the gilts.
In a recent SEGES study, it was found the best-performing Danish herds were only culling 5 percent of their parity one sows after their first litter.
They found a signifi- cant increase of 0.7 in total born per litter and 0.6 total live born per litter when replacement gilts had a higher back fat depth at mating due to the feeding strategy of low protein combined with a high energy intake.
The correct feeding strategy for gilts, from the late rearing period, will not only contribute to their longevity in the herd, but can also im- prove their reproduc- tive performance by in- creasing the number of piglets born per litter.
The lesser-performing herds in the study were culling up to 30 percent of their parity one sows after their first litter – which clearly affects the economics of the herd.
This increase in piglets per litter can be further improved when the gilts are flushed 5-7 days prior to mating – a potential increase of 0.4 live born
For further information on any studies mentioned in this article, please feel free to contact me at asno@danbred.com
Page 6 – Australian Pork Newspaper, July 2020
SEGES recommends aiming for a first parity cull rate of 5-10 percent for any reason to cull a
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