DlO-Lancaster Fanring, Saturday, May 18, 1996
PRINCETON, N J. The po
tential to increase litter sizes and
improve animal health is leading
animal scientists to advise pork
producers to double-check the
vitamin E content in their sow ra
tions.
Currently, the National Re
search Council (NRC) lists the
vitamin E requirement for adult
swine as 20,000 international
Units IU) per ton of feed. Over the
past few years, however, studies
by Ohio State University scientists
have indicated that when sows' ra
tions provided vitamin E at double
or triple that levle, litter size in
creased by an average of one pig
and the incidence of costly masti
tis-metritis-agalactia (MMA) in
Science Olympiad
Announces Winners
DOYLESTOWN (Bucks Co.)
Delaware Valley College
hosted the Southeastern Regional
Science Olympiad recently on its
Doyles town campus.
First in the middle school divi
sion was Unami Middle School.
First in the high school division
was Harriton High School.
The teams competed in 23 sci
entific and technical events
throughout campus and received
points based on their successes
compared to other schools in their
division. The 11 highest ranked
teams in the middle school divi-
sion and the nine highest ranked
teams in the high school division
will attend the Pennsylvania Sci-
ence Olympiad in April at Juniata
College.
Advancing teams in the middle
school division, listed from first to
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Vitamin E: Triple Duty For Sows, Pigs
newly farrowed sows decreased
significantly compared to con
trols.
Meanwhile, other research has
shown that when the lactating
sow’s diet included higher levels
of vitamin E, her nursing piglets
had a boost in their developing im
mune systems.
The discrepancy between NRC
requirements and recent research
isn’t all that surprising, said Dr.
Donald Mahan, who led the Ohio
research team. For one thing, the
NRC itself has emphasized that its
requirements are minimums, de
signed to prevent classic deficien
cy signs rather than promote opti
mum health and performance. Ad
ditionally. the current NRC
requirement for vitamin E. which
llth place, were Unami Middle
School, Bala Cynwyd Middle
School. Haverford Middle School,
Governor Mifflin Middle School,
Stetson Middle School, New
Hope-Solebury Middle School.
Welsh Valley Middle School.
Fleetwood Middle School, Fugett
Middle School, Abington Junior
High School, and E.T. Richardson
Middle School.
Advancing teams in the high
school division, listed from first to
ninth place, were Harriton High
School, Haverfofd Senior High
School, B. Reed Henderson High
School, Central Bucks West High
School, Abington High School,
Wilson High School, German
town Friends School. Lower Mer
ion High School, and Central
Bucks East High School.
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was published in 1988, is based on
studies that were done a decade or
longer ago and that used grow
ing/finishing hogs rather than
sows.
“The bottom line is that if a pro
ducer is trying to keep a sow in the
herd for a longer period which
is what many producers are trying
to do I would probably recom
mend a minimum 0f60,000 IU per
ton of ration to meet that require
ment for reproduction and enhanc
ing the immune response,” Mahan
said.
MMA presents an especially
common problem in newly far
rowed sows, Mahan said, “be
cause the birth process disrupts a
lot of tissue. And with the expos
ure of what are basically open
wounds or sores, there’s a greater
opportunity for pathogenic bacter
ia to cause disease.”
It’s long been known that a
strong immune response requires
adequate vitamin E stores. The
connection still isn’t fully under
stood, but in experiments with
swine and other livestock, re
searchers studying increased sup
plementation have reported bene
fits ranging from increased survi
val rates in newborn pigs and
lambs to fewer, less severe out
breaks of mastitis in dairy cows.
“If the sow is in a good vitamin
E status at the time of farrowing,
she can have a lower incidence of
MMA. In addition, her milk pro
duction and the subsequent repro
ductive effects appear to be en
hanced,” Mahan said. Scientists
have also conducted studies sug
gesting that increased levels of
vitamin E can play another role in
reproductive performance (affect
ing litter size) through the forma
tion of prostaglandins involved in
mKEm
MFG. CORP.
reproduction, he notes. However,
research in this area is continuing.
Producers’ goals will largely
determine how much vitamin sup
plementation proves optimum,
Mahan said. “If your goal is simp
ly to maximize reproductive ef
fects, you can probably see results
at around 36,000 to 54,000 IU per
ton of feed.” he said, based on his
studies. “But the immune re
sponse seems to require a higher
level of vitamin E in the diet If
you’re interested in reducing
MMA, vitamin E is apparently ef
fective at 60,000 to 80,000 lU.”
In balancing rations to optimize
vitamin E intake, Mahan cautions
against relying too much on the
levels found in feedstuffs. “Grain,
Sheep, Wool Festival
(Continued from Pago D 9)
but they do need to make a high
quality wool and focus on the
types of wool that are returning
the most money.
Marketing is the final area Pope
sees as vital to the success of the
operation. He said wool is the only
industry where the buyer tells the
seller what it is that he is trying to
sell. By knowing exactly what it is
you’re producing, which requires
becoming familiar with your wool
the diameter, fiber length, and
other factors you can most ef
fectively market it He suggests
coring die wool clip and selling it
on the core. “Several pools core
their wool and want a price on the
core. Some even want a clean
price,” he said. “Put it into vol
umes you can objectively mea
sure.”
Communication between the
seller and customer is important
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for instance, is a very good source
of vitamin E, but once the kernel
is cracked or the grain is heated or
exposed to minerals, the vitamin H
will be destroyed,” he said.
University of Kentucky swine
nutritionist Dr. Merlin Lindemann
estimates that it will probably cost
about $1.50 per sow per year to
supplement sow rations at these
levels of vitamin E. “It’s not going
to take much more than a tenth of
a pig per sow per year for that in
creased level of vitamin E to pay
off,” Lindemann said. “Or looking
at it another way, you won’t need
more than one or two sows to con
ceive that might have had to be re
bred to pay for that higher supple
mentation level.”
whether you arc niche marketing
to die cottage industry, or pooling
your wool. Pope said. On the
small scale, a handspinner may be
interested in the life story of a par
ticular sheep. Turn that informa
tion into a marketing tool.
The same holds true when talk
ing about larger quantities. Com
mercial processors need volume,
approximately 150,000-250,000
pounds to process at one time.
They don’t buy one lot that size—
they blend: American with Aus
tralian, Eastern with Western do
mestic, in many different com
binations. They don’t mix wide
varieties or fiber diameters, but
the blending that they do allows
them to produce a cheaper product
that still has the value they need.
Information that the grower pro
vides is valuable to than. They
cap then utilizp the information to
their advantage in Mending.
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