How To Reduce The Carbon Footprint Of Pig Production

A baseline farm was identified based on average figures (Table 1). In the various scenarios, the feed ration was kept the same, but the technical parameters were modified. In each scenario, one technical parameter was improved from the baseline situation and the carbon footprints were compared. In Figure 1, the carbon footprint of each scenario is weighted relative to the baseline situation. The different scenarios have been grouped according to the fattening phase (dark green), piglet production (light green) plus columns where they are all combined (stripped). As manure management is also important, a scenario was added where the manure was stored and further processed in a biodigester (red).

Table 1. Technical performance baseline scenario

Figure 1. Results from an initial impact study showing the improvements in carbon footprint of several management factors relative to the baseline farm. FCR = feed conversion rate, ADG = average daily gain, PSY = piglets weaned per sow per year.

Conclusion

• Interventions during the fattening phase had the biggest impact.
• Production efficiencies such as FCR, daily gain, and slaughter weight had a bigger impact than reducing mortality.
• Although piglet production has an overall lower impact, working on increasing piglet production does help reduce the overall carbon footprint.

* Opteinics, a trademark of BASF, is an LCA software tool allowing the calculation of the environmental impact per kg carcass weight of livestock production.