F. X. Aherne Award for Innovation
The need to double production at their hog barn has earned an F. X. Aherne Award for Innovation for a mixed farm based in Southern Ontario.
First-generation Canadians, Richard and Terri De Wetering operate De Wetering Hills Farms near Stratford with two young adults, their daughter and son, Greta and Harry. Harry wants to join the business, so Terri and Richard decided to expand their hog barn.
Terri offered a description of the farm during their presentation to the Innovators production session at Banff Pork Seminar.
“Our business comprises of the 3,010-(head) finishing barn,” said Terri.
“We have 340 acres of certified organic grain crops, and we use the manure from the barn as the nitrogen for the grain crops. We have a small beef herd, more for a hobby, and we do custom work for extra income, and we have small farm-gate sales.”
The expansion lengthened the barn by 200 feet and added 1800 head of feeders in a loose housing, forced sort facility.
Richard was investigating different methods of setting up a system that combines ceiling fans with natural ventilation to keep the barn warm in winter and cool in summer. He discovered polycarbonate window panels that let some light through but have a sufficient insulation factor to keep the cold out and let the pigs keep themselves warm when temperatures drop.
Richard chose a smokey grey colour rather than clear, because he feels it is more comfortable for the pigs than panels that would let in too much light.
A computer-controlled actuator raises or closes the panels at 6ºC and there is a pony wall halfway through the bar to improve functionality.
The pigs themselves are the only source of heat, saving a fortune in utility costs, and there is a backup generator to operate the systems in case of a power failure, says Richard.
Up-front costs were higher than a more traditional setup, but the windowpanes have a long life expectancy, and the savings over time on utilities and pig health will more than recover that initial investment, he said.
The project was simple and fast – six months from excavation until the first pigs were brought in.

R. O. Ball Young Scientists Award
Finalist presentations drew what appeared to be the biggest crowd in over 50 years for the annual Young Scientists presentations. The competition was renamed some years ago after the retirement of University of Alberta Professor Ron Ball, who played a major role in organizing the seminar along with his wife, conference co-ordinator Ruth Ball.
The four finalists in 2025, chosen from a poster competition outlining research projects performed at universities across North America, were University of Guelph students Vanessa Kloostra and Minh Van Pham; Kylie Tiedje from University of Calgary, and Vivian Vieira from University of Saskatchewan.
Cash prizes were awarded to Kloostra in first place for her presentation discussing dietary lysine required to maximize piglet birth weight and subsequent milk yield and to Tiedje, runner up for her discussion of the involvement of inflammasome activated macrophages in swine dysentery.
Under the guidance of lactation biologist Chantal Farmer with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Kloostra investigated potential for getting pigs off to a better start and helping prolific sows produce enough milk to feed those pigs. She is completing a Master of Science degree under supervision of Associate Professor Leanne Huber, whose research focuses on swine nutrition.
Kloostra’s research investigates whether the National Research Council’s recommendation for lysine provided to sows is sufficient.
“Throughout the years, genetic selection has increased the litter size,” said Kloostra.
“However, litter birth weight has not increased to the same degree which has resulted in a drop in individual piglet birth weight.”
She said this trend is not beneficial to piglets, since the reduction in birth weights has come with an increase in mortality rates. Additionally, the highly prolific sow cannot produce enough milk to maximize piglet growth, especially among gilts who do not consume as much as sows and have not had previous lactation cycles to undergo mammary development.
“We need to find ways to increase the birth weight of piglets so that we can increase the weaning weight and shorten the days to market.”
While there are alternative feed sources available, milk is the best feed source for new pigs, said Kloostra. Alternative sources such as milk replacer and creep feed are expensive and labour intensive she said.
Additionally, milk production of the sow needs to improve.
“By improving mammary development, we can improve the milk yield in lactation,” said Kloostra.”
Her study therefore focused on finding the optimum level of lysine to maximize piglet birth weight and lactation production in the sow.
Trials were performed at the Ontario Swine Research Station, with various measurements taken at strategic points to make comparisons between the different groups of animals, including feed intake of the sows.
Some factors were not impacted by the treatment, she said. However, piglet birth weight and litter birth weight were affected.

“We found that increasing the lysine level in late gestation increases the piglet birth weight. We found that the optimum level that maximized the piglet birth weight was 22 grams per day of SID lysine, or 115 per cent of the current requirements.”
Increasing the birth weight has beneficial effect throughout the pig’s life, so this is a positive impact of increasing lysine in late gestation, said Kloostra.
Turning to lactation feed intake, Kloostra said she found an optimum point of 23 grams per day, approximately 120 per cent of the current requirement. Sows at the optimum level produced more milk while consuming less feed, with no negative impact on body condition, she said.
“It means these sows are more efficient at producing the nutrients that they consume into milk for their piglets.”
She concludes, therefore, that the lysine requirements in late gestation are higher than the NRC model, suggesting that sows and gilts be fed 22 to 23 grams per day of SID lysine.
Tiedje stated in her presentation that swine dysentery is still a major challenge after piglets are weaned, with a need for alternative treatments where antimicrobials were once common.
She investigated the effectiveness of using anti-inflammatory compounds as a potential therapy and found that treatment to be worth further study in the search for alternatives.

Also awarded on the morning of January 9th was the recipient of George Foxcroft Lectureship award which was presented to Dr. David Rosero from Iowa State University.
He was also one of the breakout session speakers. Improving Sow Livability – A Collaborative Approach.
Abstracts from all posters in the competition are available within the proceedings of the 2025 Banff Pork Seminar. Copies of proceedings are available for purchase by email to pork@ualberta.ca or by calling 780-492-3651. •
— By Brenda Kossowan