Farmscape for October 31, 2024

Saskatchewan Agriculture reports the province's farmers are disappointed with this year's crops but relieved that things weren't worse.
Saskatchewan Agriculture released its final crop report of the season yesterday.
Tyce Masich, a Crops Extension Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, says producers were able to get their crops off well before the heavy frosts set in.

Quote-Tyce Masich-Saskatchewan Agriculture:
Starting in May when producers were seeing it was very cool and wet so there were some seeding delays and also the early season cool temperatures specifically delayed crop development in the first two months of the growing season, which wasn't great for crops but the moisture did allow them to be well established for the lack of moisture in July and August that we saw.
In July and August there were hot and dry conditions throughout most of Saskatchewan which really hurt the early season yield potential that producers were expecting.
Early season, with all of the moisture that we had, there were more reports of early season root rot in crops which hurt crop establishment early in the season and then, as the season progressed and things got warmer and drier, that's when the grasshoppers really came out and started to feed on crops.
I know in the west and southwest producers were spraying for grasshoppers specifically and in areas of the province that would have gotten rainfall in the beginning July when canola was full canopy there were a lot of producers spraying for sclerotinia stem rot and there were some reports of sclerotinia stem rot in Saskatchewan but I think overall it had a pretty minimal impact on yields this year.
The biggest thing was the hot conditions in July really heat blasted a lot of canola which would have resulted in most of the yield loss for canola and other crops as well.

Masich says yields for most crops in Saskatchewan were slightly above average with the exceptions of crops like canola and mustard that were slightly below average but, given the dry years we've had the past couple of years, growers are happy with that.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

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

Farmscape for November 4, 2024

An animal science professor with Colorado State University suggests, when it comes to health and welfare, aggression and animal handling, genetics is a key factor to consider.
"Pig Handling and Welfare" will highlight day one of Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2024, set for tomorrow and Wednesday Saskatoon.
Dr. Temple Grandin, an animal science professor with Colorado State University, says, while animal handling has improved dramatically over the past 40 years, one factor that plays a role is genetics.

Quote-Dr. Temple Grandin-Colorado State University:
I'm getting more and more concerned about both pigs and cattle that have things like foot and leg confirmation issues which makes them lame and that's going to make them difficult to handle.
There are some pigs and some cattle that have really bad foot and leg confirmation and it makes the animal lame.
Where we're having a problem is with some of the babies.
Right now, in cattle there's problems in certain parts of North America with congestive heart failure and lameness that's conformational, that's genetic and that's just pushing for meat traits.
It's gotten worse in the last 10 years in cattle.
Hopefully that's not happening to the pigs but I think foot and leg conformation is something that needs to be considered in any of these animals because we tend to indiscriminately breed for meat traits, you often end up breeding for bad feet and legs.
Some lines of lean pigs are very nasty about fighting and that’s not going to work in group housing.
You have to get the right pig.
I just read some research which I'm a bit concerned about where you get a pig that's really gentle, her piglets aren't as robust and strong.
That's not good, so you've got to find the right balance of genetics where we get a sow that doesn't fight a whole lot but she still breeds strong robust piglets.

For full details on Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2024 can be found at SaskPork.com.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

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

Farmscape for November 7, 2024

Animal health officials are responding to the first case of a pig in the United States testing positive for high path H5N1 avian influenza.
On October 30th USDA confirmed that the first detection in a pig of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza had occurred on a small backyard mixed farm in Oregon that housed poultry, swine, sheep and goats.
Swine Health Information Center Executive Director Dr. Megan Niederwerder notes the investigation was triggered when birds on the farm started showing clinical signs of infection.

Quote-Dr. Megan Niederwerder-Swine Health Information Center:
We know that H5N1 is a specific highly pathogenic avian influenza strain that has really increased with regards to circulation over the last two years.
This is primarily maintained in migratory waterfowl but the virus has spilled over into other mammalian species such as seals and sea lions as well as domestic livestock including dairy cattle, first detected in March of 2024 and now in the first pig in October of 2024.
These pigs that were housed on this farm, there were five pigs, none of these animals were intended for the commercial food supply.
Pork continues to be safe for consumption.
There is no concern about the safety of the nation's pork supply as a result of this finding.
The other aspect of this detection is that none of the pigs that were housed on the operation, including the one that was found to be infected, had any clinical signs.
They were completely healthy so this could indicate a low pathogenicity in pigs.
We're still learning about that.
Only a single pig has been shown to be infected so there's a lot to learn about the potential risk to the swine industry.

Dr. Niederwerder encourages pork producers to review their biosecurity procedures focussing on areas where workers or equipment may be exposed to both dairy farms and pig farms or poultry farms and pig farms.
To keep up to date on the situation visit swinehealth.org.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

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

Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium Audio Special for November 7, 2024

Ken Engele, the Manager of Knowledge Transfer with the Prairie Swine Centre, discusses “Taking Care of Basics-Measuring On-Farm Best Management Practices.”
Runs 6:31
https://fsaudio.farmscape.com/2024/11/engele-241105.mp3

Dr. Temple Grandin, an Animal Science Professor with Colorado State University, facilitates “A Discussion on Pig Handling and Welfare.”
Runs 13:08
https://fsaudio.farmscape.com/2024/11/grandin-241105.mp3

Dr. Martyna Lagoda, a Post Doctoral Fellow with the University of Saskatchewan, discusses “Advancing swine welfare practices to empower your industry: Outcomes and future directions from the NSERC Chair in Swine Welfare.”
Runs 8:00
https://fsaudio.farmscape.com/2024/11/lagoda-241105.mp3

Dr. Raj Sharma, a Post Doctoral Research Fellow with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln “Enhancing the future of pork production with new technology.”
Runs 10:25
https://fsaudio.farmscape.com/2024/11/sharma-241105.mp3

Dr. Brad Chappell, the Director of Veterinary Services with Topigs Norsvin Canada, discusses “Biosecurity-Back to Basics.”
Runs 5:01
https://fsaudio.farmscape.com/2024/11/chappell-241105.mp3

Dr. Bobbie Lundquist, the Emergency Preparedness Director with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, discusses “ASF Preparedness,, Zoning and Zoning Arrangements.”
Runs 9:08
https://fsaudio.farmscape.com/2024/11/lundquist-241105.mp3

Stephen Heckbert, the Executive Director of the Canadian Pork Council, discusses “Changes to Canada’s Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs.”
Runs 9:54
https://fsaudio.farmscape.com/2024/11/heckbert-241106.mp3

Kevin Grier, with Kevin Grier Marketing and Consulting, discusses “the Competitive Status of the Canadian Pork Industry.”
Runs 5:07
https://fsaudio.farmscape.com/2024/11/grier-241106.mp3

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, a professor with Dalhousie University, discusses “Navigating the Maze: Agri-Food Trends and their Impact on the Pork Industry.”
Runs 9:14
https://fsaudio.farmscape.com/2024/11/charlebois-241106.mp3

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

Farmscape for November 8, 2024

An Animal Science Professor with Colorado State University says the handling of livestock and the understanding of animal behavior have improved dramatically since the 1990s.
"Pig Handling and Welfare" was the focus of the day one keynote address at Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2024, held this week in Saskatoon.
Dr. Temple Grandin, an animal science professor with Colorado State University, says there is a much greater awareness of the benefits of superior stockmanship.

Quote-Dr. Temple Grandin-Colorado State University:
One thing that's really good is handling has improved.
That's the good news but also attitudes toward welfare have changed.
I started out in the 70s and was the livestock chairman for a group called LCI, Livestock Conservation Institute.
It was a livestock organization and they had committees on preventing death losses in pigs, reducing bruises in cattle.
It all had to do with economic losses.
Then, when I first started out working with cattle, I emphasized how I could improve the economics.
Nobody at that point was even talking about welfare then gradually things got more interested in welfare.
Maybe 20 years ago there was a lot videos put out showing really horrible handling, really bad stuff, pitchfork in the milking parlor, knocking dairy cows over with a forklift, beating pigs with gate rods as hard as they could beat them, just really bad things and that started a lot of the things on handling.
I did work with McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's in 1999 on inspecting pork and beef slaughter plants and it was very interesting taking high executives out and when they saw something really bad it was a true undercover boss moment.
They realized that there were things that we did have to fix but that kind of stuff's not going on now.
It took a long  time for a lot of people to accept that pigs and other animals feel pain.
Now the big emphasis has gone from, you've got to prevent suffering.

Dr. Grandin suggests by measuring and scoring handling, including such factors such as slips and falls, electric prod use, body condition score, lameness, vocalization you can tell whether you're getting better or worse.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

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

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The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 7.1.0 Alpha 1. This release marks the beginning of the first minor release in the PHP 7.x series. All users of PHP are encouraged to test this version carefully, and report any bugs and incompatibilities in the bug tracking system. THIS IS A DEVELOPMENT PREVIEW - DO NOT USE IT IN PRODUCTION! PHP 7.1.0 Alpha 1 comes with features such as (incomplete list): Nullable TypesSquare bracket syntax for array destructuring assignment Allow specifying keys in list()Generalize support of negative string offsets Void Return TypeClass constant visibility modifiersMulti catch 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. For source downloads of PHP 7.1.0 Alpha 1 please visit the download page, Windows sources and binaries can be found on windows.php.net/qa/. The second alpha will be released on the 23rd of June. You can also read the full list of planned releases on our wiki. Thank you for helping us make PHP better.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 7.1.0 Alpha 2. This is the second alpha release for PHP 7.1.0. All users of PHP are encouraged to test this version carefully, and report any bugs and incompatibilities in the bug tracking system. THIS IS A DEVELOPMENT PREVIEW - DO NOT USE IT IN PRODUCTION! 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. For source downloads of PHP 7.1.0 Alpha 2 please visit the download page, Windows sources and binaries can be found on windows.php.net/qa/. The first beta will be released on the 7th of July. You can also read the full list of planned releases on our wiki. Thank you for helping us make PHP better.