An analysis of Canadian pork production over the past 30 years shows a continued increase in efficiency and productivity and a shrinking of the sector’s environmental footprint.
The Canadian pig production practices survey for improved economic and environmental viability conducted for Swine Innovation Porc had many questions. The survey asked pork producers across Canada about their barns’ design, floor space, growth stage and throughput’s, the composition and source of diets, including inputs for producing and transporting the ingredients, manure management energy and water use.
Dr. Mario Tenuta, the senior industrial research chair in 4R Nutrient Stewardship and a Professor of Soil Ecology at the University of Manitoba, said the study shows from 1990 to 2020, the efficiency of producing pork improved by a good eight to 10 percent.
“There’s improvement in water, electricity, fuel, feed.”
The reasons are genetics, technological advances, and the available co-products from the general food industry; distiller’s industries or ethanol or alcohol consumption see much more use of dried distiller’s grains, for example. Also, the use of meal in feed rations and the co-products from oil production, particularly canola helped immensely. It’s positive for the industry to see this trajectory and can identify areas of improved trajectory for the near future.
The survey’s vision was to capture the current state of production efficiency and the environmental footprint of producing pigs across Canada and do a regional assessment of that production efficiency and environmental footprinting.
“We needed to know the current state to move forward and improve efficiency and know if the efficiency had improved.”
Dr. Tenuta said determining production efficiency and environmental footprint requires many questions that feed into all aspects of efficiency and footprint.
“So think about all the considerations for producing pigs, a daunting task, and hats off to the producers that responded to the survey. It was a good considerable amount of time that they had to dedicate to that completion.”
The survey questions covered the facilities, the barns, what barn age and flooring, and the floor space available to individual pigs. The different stages of pig production include farrow-to-finish, nursery, breeding, weaning, etc.
Another set of questions asked about how many pigs came through that barn and over what period. The resources the producer used to produce those pigs. The questioners needed to know what feed the producer purchased as a mixed ration or did the producer mix the whole ration or a portion of the ration on their own. And where did the components, including the corn and barley, come from, whether grown on the farm or did the producer purchase it elsewhere?
How much manure did the barn produce, and how was it stored in the barn and outside? Also, what is the frequency of manure application and application regarding the land base?
The producer had to answer the weights of the pigs at the different stages tied in with marketability.
While the survey went to producers across Canada the initial good uptake came from Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta. Then a second effort was shoring up to get more producers responding from Quebec.
“We also engaged the integrated producers to obtain information on production as part of the footprint.”
Dr. Tenuta said the goal was to capture the range and producer types across the country. Also, to get a good response from the key provinces producing the most pigs in Canada, teaming up with the provincial boards to get the messages out to their producer members about the survey.
The team related the answers with all indicators of production efficiency and environmental indicators showing the use of better resources to produce more pig products. In terms of the footprint, the carbon dioxide equivalents emitted per carcass weight, in terms of production of 1,000 kilograms of product, has also decreased.
The team will use the survey results and data to inform the public, producers, consumers, and government about the improvements over the past 30 years.
Dr. Tenuta said there would be more improvements by changing the diet, improving barn design, using renewable energy sources, and further modernizing production. •
— By Harry Siemens