Swine Producers Advised to Pay Close Attention to Feed Quality

October 20, 2010 — 

A researcher with the Prairie Swine Centre is advising swine producers to pay particularly close attention to feed grain quality when securing feed supplies for this winter.

The 2010 growing season has been characterized by abnormally wet weather which has resulted in an estimated six to ten million acres remaining unseeded across the Canadian prairies and anticipated quality reductions on much of the crop that did go into the ground. Dr. Denise Beaulieu, a research scientist with the Prairie Swine Centre in Saskatoon, says the weather has been changing day by day so producers are watching harvest conditions closely.

Dr. Beaulieu says if producers can get good deals on grains that have been downgraded they could be of good economic value. She says the issue is with molds and mycotoxins and recommends if molds are suspected sending off samples for testing.

Source: Farmscape for October 15, 2010 (Episode 3434)