Farm-Scape is sponsored by Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork Play Audio Farm-Scape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork.

Farm-Scape, Episode 1292

Research conducted near Kola, Manitoba suggests pigs that are fed surface water will perform as well as pigs that are fed ground water.

The surface water study was conducted by the University of Manitoba in partnership with PFRA, the Prairie Swine Centre, Manitoba Agriculture and Food and Elite Swine at an Elite Swine nursery barn near Kola.

The project was designed to provide base line information on the use of surface water in swine production, specifically nursery pig production.

U of M Assistant Professor Dr. Martin Nyachoti says the swine industry is expanding into areas where good quality ground water might not be available so the goal of the project was to determine how surface water would affect performance.

"What we found in this particular study is that pigs really didn't care.

The water that we utilized, compared with well water, performed very well.

There was no differences in terms of pig response between those that were fed surface water compared to those that were fed ground water.

This particular study suggests that surface water can be used in nursery pig production.

We worked with nursery pigs just because they are likely to be more sensitive to water quality problems.

The data we obtained suggested that the water we used had no effect so, at this point, we can say that surface water can be utilized in the production of nursery pigs".

Dr. Nyachoti says more work is needed to determine whether the results of the study are due to the specific source of surface water used or if those results are generally applicable to all situations.

He says additional studies will need to look at such factors as how the quality of surface water varies from one season to the next and what effect that will have on pig performance.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.