Farmscape for November 11, 2024

Research underway the Canadian Feed Research Centre is examining the role feed ingredient particle size plays in triggering ulcers in pigs and the impact of those ulcers on health and performance.
Because of its extremely small particle size pea starch, a byproduct of the extraction of protein from yellow peas to make products like protein bars, has been found to increase the susceptibility of pigs to ulcers when included in rations.
In response to an increased availability of pea starch, researchers are evaluating processing methods, including pelleting and extrusion, to address that challenge.
Dr. Rex Newkirk, an associate professor with the University of Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan Research Chair in Feed Processing Technology responsible for the Canadian Feed Research Centre, says ulcers are more common than realised.

Quote-Dr. Rex Newkirk-University of Saskatchewan:
If we grind the food more fully we get an increase in digestibility, it takes less feed to produce the same amount of meat and so we do grind to a certain level but if we get too fine it causes ulcers in the stomach.
We've known that for a long time.
So, we've added up to 40 percent and we were pleased in that we didn't see major changes in ulcers but what was a bit concerning to us is we did see ulcers, even in the control diet so, it wasn't like we've seen no ulcers without pea starch and ulcers with.
We've seen ulcers in all of our diets for the most part and they were just slightly worse with the pea starch.
But, I see these pigs and they're completely happy and growing and fine so I'm a bit confused as to how much to make out of the ulcers.
I don't want anything have an ulcer but they seem to be growing, they seem to be doing really well.
Where I do have a concern with the ulcers is, maybe under ideal conditions they will do fine and we're seeing the performance is great stuff but what if there's one other stressor, two other stressors.
What if there's some disease in the barn?
What if you have a feed outage and that's one of the things we've studied.
If you have too high a levels of pea starch, could it plug up in your feeders?
Yes.
And could you have some short-term outages and that would then contribute to more severe ulcers?
This we do know, so I think that our goal should be the healthiest pigs possible and I think part of that is managing the particle size in our diets.

Dr. Newkirk says lately researchers have been looking more at course versus fine diets to better understand the physiology.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

Farmscape for November 12, 2024

A Guelph based hog market analyst is forecasting a modest increase in Canadian pork production in 2025 and higher prices.
“The Competitive Status of the Canadian Pork Industry,” was the topic of a keynote address last week at Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2024 in Saskatoon.
Kevin Grier, with Kevin Grier Market Analysis and Consulting, says Canada is the sixth largest pork producer in the world but the fourth largest exporter so, as the old saying goes, it punches above its weight.

Quote-Kevin Grier-Kevin Grier Market Analysis and Consulting:
In terms of the outlook for 2025 I'm expecting, based on the last Hogs and Pigs Report, to have a modest increase in production in 2025.
We have less beef because of where we are at in the cattle cycle and we're going to have less beef next year and the year after that so pork should be able to make competitive gains in the meat case or on the menu at restaurants so, in some respects, the pork industry is probably hoping that pork can gain market share at the expense of beef.
We still will be aggressive exporters and I'm hoping to see, for the sake of the industry, improved demand in 2025 because of the beef situation so we should have more production.
But, probably and hopefully for the sake of producers, we should see an increased price in 2025 compared to 2024.
Again, part of our keys is the fact that we are a low-cost producer at the farm level.
According to data from InterPIG, Canada is always among the lowest cost producers in the world, a little bit higher cost than Brazil or the United States, but always right there among the most competitive in terms of producer production costs.
We may not be a low-cost producer at the packer level but we compete in other ways, through increased quality specifications, service, that sort of thing so from the farm to the packer we are competitive industry and that's how we compete, on costs but also on service and quality.

Grier invites any interested to contact him at kevingrier.com to request a three-month trial subscription to his Canadian Pork Market Report.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

Farmscape for November 13, 2024

A professor with Dalhousie University suggests Canada will need to work with the United States under the new Donald Trump administration to ensure benefits to Canadian agriculture.
“Navigating the Maze: Agri-Food Trends and their Impact on the Pork Industry” was among the topics discussed last week in Saskatoon as part of Saskatchewan pork Industry Symposium 2024.
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, a professor with Dalhousie University, says Canada followed the United States in terms of food inflation but Canada is now higher, the result of Canada's own food policies.

Quote-Dr. Sylvain Charlebois-Dalhousie University:
Dairy, meat are pushing food inflation higher and they're all pretty domestic.
That's why, during my talk I really focused a lot on the concept of competitiveness, because I don't think that right now that we're helping agriculture.
We're just making agriculture more expensive so farmers are struggling.
Right now, things are good for the pork industry but they're not going to remain the same so we've got to be ready for that and, with America becoming even more competitive under a Trump regime, we're going to have to follow.
I know there's a lot of rhetoric around tariffs and things like that.
I don't pay a whole lot of attention to that.
I think what's most important is the fact that we do have an American administration looking at deals, looking for deals.
Donald Trump is very transactional.
He's very predictable and so I think we need to capitalize on that as much as possible.
But I do think that the world is likely going to get more interesting as a result of what we're seeing in Washington and that's going to probably benefit Canada over time.
But we've got to be in lock step with the Americans.
We can't just be at odds with them.
We're at odds with India, with China.
The last thing we want is to be at odds with the Americans.

To access Dr. Charlebois's work google "Agri-Food Analytics Lab, Dalhousie University."
He notes all of the reports are available in both French and English at no charge.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

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The PHP team is pleased to announce the first testing release of PHP 8.0.0, Alpha 1. This starts the PHP 8.0 release cycle, the rough outline of which is specified in the PHP Wiki. For source downloads of PHP 8.0.0 Alpha 1 please visit the download page.Please carefully test this version and report any issues found in the bug reporting system.Please DO NOT use this version in production, it is an early test version. For more information on the new features and other changes, you can read the NEWS file, or the UPGRADING file for a complete list of upgrading notes. These files can also be found in the release archive. The next release will be Alpha 2, planned for 9 Jul 2020.The signatures for the release can be found in the manifest or on the QA site.Thank you for helping us make PHP better.