It takes mere seconds to compact a soil, but years or even decades for it to recover. Biological activities by plant roots and soil organisms (earthworms) as well as physical effects like drying out and rewetting phases, and freezing-thawing cycles are vital for natural regeneration. Exactly how recovery happens is being investigated in a long-term field trial. For this, an observational infrastructure with hundreds of soil probes – the Soil Structure Observatory (SSO) – was set up in 2014 together with ETH Zurich. After the initial compaction event, a fallow, a permanent grassland and a crop rotation with and without tillage were set up. This allows to analyse e.g. the influence of plants and tillage on recovery.
Milkers frequently suffer from musculoskeletal disorders, especially in the area of the shoulders and arms. Agroscope therefore investigated whether appropriate working heights can reduce workload in the milking parlour. For this, the angle of flexion of various joints during milking was recorded in one experiment, whilst a second experiment recorded muscle contractions at three different heights. The study showed that although a lower working height in the milking parlour has no effect on forearms or upper arms, it significantly reduces strain on the shoulders.
Prediction of piglet survival based only on birth weight or within-litter birth weight variability.
Dans: Book of Abstracts of the 74th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science. 26 August - 1 September, Ed. EAAP European Federation of Animal Science, Lyon (FR). 2023, 214.
variability within litter (BWvar) highly affect the pre-weaning survival. Further, the identification of low birth weight (LBW) piglets often relies on arbitrary statistical classifications. We established optimal cut-off values for BW and BWvar to predict pre-weaning piglet survival. BW, BWvar and survival data were obtained from FBN and Agroscope experimental pig facilities. The FBN data (2012 to 2021) for the German Landrace breed consisted of records from 28,242 total number of piglets born (TNB) i.e. born dead or alive from 752 sows. The Agroscope data (2004 to 2022) for the Swiss Large White consisted of 43,159 piglet records from 980 sows. The cut-off values for BW and BWvar to predict piglet survival from birth to weaning were estimated by the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves analysis using the cutpointr package of R (v 4.0.3). Postnatal piglet mortality was highest within the first 3 days. From the piglets born alive, about 85.2 and 83.7% survived day 3 at FBN and Agroscope, respectively. Respective survival rates at weaning were 81.1 and 78.6%. Overall, the piglets below a BW cut-off value of 1.18 kg (i.e. FBN=1.17 kg and Agroscope=1.19 kg) had a lower survival probability at birth than those piglets>1.18 kg, and can be considered as LBW piglets. With a cut-off value of 0.278 g (AUC=0.55) the BWvar had a lower prediction accuracy than BW (AUC=0.66). Moreover, a BW cut-off value of 1.22 g (AUC=0.74) would increase the probability of piglets to survive until weaning. Although facilities were different in terms of genotypes and environments, highly similar cut-off values were estimated for identification of LBW with smaller survival probability for both facilities. The results also suggest that prediction of piglet survival with only BW is more informative than only with BWvar. The identified LWB piglets may benefit from extra support measures such as e.g. supplemental milk.
On behalf of Micarna SA, Agroscope analysed the environmental impacts of beef, pork and poultry production. With beef production, feed intensity was crucial. In the case of pork and poultry production, the quantity of feed used per kg of meat had the greatest influence on environmental impacts. The use of European soya with its shorter transport distances had a positive effect.