Commercial application of integrated models to improve performance and profitability in finishing pigs.

Abstract

The current market and economic challenges faced by pork producers are unprecedented and therefore there is a constant need to determine the economically optimal nutrition and management solutions. Simulation models can be used to fulfill this need provided they have the capacity to integrate animal responses, management practices and economics into an optimization process that produces reasonably accurate predictions under a wide range of commercial practices. Some of the key components required to successfully implement an optimization model in commercial practice include: (i) the ability to predict feed intake; (ii) integration of an animal biology model that predicts animal responses to nutrient, management and environmental changes and the financial consequences thereof, with a feed formulation system; (iii) knowing the variation in responses between individual animals and understanding the source of animal variation; (iv) the effect of shipping management on mean performance; and (v) model validation. Such integrated optimization models (e.g. Watson® 2.0 used by Nutreco) can be used strategically to drive significant nutritional or production changes with large economic consequences. For example, based on the findings of a model, a commercial feed company may change the nutrient profile of all their standard nursery diets in response to increasing ingredient prices. Or a model may help a producer to understand the risks, costs and benefits of changing genetics, or provide producers with a reference guide to help decide what is the optimum shipping weight bearing in mind rapidly changing pig and/or feed prices. Just as helpful but on a much smaller scale is using a model to help a producer improve feed efficiency or reduce costs or increase revenue by optimizing the nutrient density of the diet or optimizing when diets should be changed during the grower-finishing period. Fundamental to the successful application of optimization models in commercial practice is the need for an accurate biological model as well as a well-defined commercialization process.

Brief history and future of animal simulation models for science and application

“…Although there are limitations to each of these approaches for predicting voluntary feed intake, the potential-constraint and first limiting nutrient concepts appear to be the most effective over a wide range of situations Ferguson 2014). However, these have limitations.…”

“…Despite the enormous potential benefits that should come to practical agriculture through the integration of fundamental scientific knowledge, simulation models have had limited success in helping everyday farm management (Newman et al 2000;Becu et al 2008;Ferguson 2014;Rivera-Torres 2014). The most successful models have been those around which business decisions depend, as illustrated by the almost universal use of diet formulation software by the intensive animal industries.…”

“…Although many models have been of substantial value for analysing specific farm enterprise options (de Lange et al 2001;Nagorcka and Zurcher 2002;Black and Banhazi 2013;Ferguson 2014;Gous 2014), their uptake by industry has been less than anticipated. The models have been valuable for assessing the impacts of alternative management strategies in isolated applications and for setting research priorities, but they have not been used for day-to-day decision making as had been envisaged by many of the model developers.…”

“…These criticisms have been overcome by an approach similar to that used by Nagorcka et al (2004) where the concentration of crucial metabolites controlling hunger and satiety within the blood is predicted on a minute by minute basis. Similarly, several models using the first limiting nutrient approach have used hourly rather than daily integration intervals (Ferguson 2014;Gous 2014). However, no current animal model truly represents the biological control of feed intake.…”

“…Others contain 'expert systems' to aid the interpretation of model outputs by people other than those involved in construction of the model (Menzies et al 1990;Oltjen et al 1990). Several animal models are also linked directly to least-cost diet formulation software where nutrient requirements predicted by the simulation model are transferred to a diet formulation predictor (Black et al 1993;de Lange et al 2001;Ferguson 2014;Gous 2014).…”