Brumm: Animal Agriculture And Greenhouse Gases-Good News

By Mike Brumm

As producers of high quality protein for the world’s population, we often get challenged that our ‘system’ of production exploits limited resources and contributes to global warming. For most of us, finding or even having a basic understanding of the facts to participate in this discussion in a knowledgeable manner can be frustrating or at least very time consuming.

This past week I came across research by Dr Frank Mitloehner, Professor of Animal Science and Air Quality Specialist at UC Davis that allowed me to gain a better perspective in response to our critics. Dr Mitloehner recently chaired a Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) committee to measure and assess the environmental impact of the livestock industry.

His comments regarding the impact of the US livestock industry are posted on-line in an article entitled: Livestock and Climate Change: Facts and Fiction that is dated April 27th of this year. The article link is:
http://blogs.ucdavis.edu/egghead/2016/04/27/livestock-and-climate-change-facts-and-fiction/

In this article Dr Mitloehner reports that the US-EPA has quantified the impact of livestock production in the US as contributing 4.2% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the US. Of this, the vast majority is ruminants (dairy and beef) because of their methane production associated with rumen digestion. The swine industry is estimated to contribute only 0.47% of the US greenhouse gas.

To put this in perspective Dr Mitloehner asserts that if the US population would replace their current incandescent light bulbs with 100% Energy Star rated bulbs there would be a 1.2% reduction our greenhouse gas output. This reduction in output due to changing lightbulbs is because the energy sector in the US contributes 31% of our greenhouse gas output and transportation another 27%.

If you think about it, the swine industries progress in reducing our greenhouse gas production can be related in part to the vast improvements we’ve made in efficiency. In 1987 SwineGraphics reported that participants in its swine records program grew pigs from 50 to 235 lb with a 3.49:1 feed conversion ratio. In 2013 participants in the MetaFarms record system grew pigs from 52 to 271 lb with a 2.83:1 feed conversion.

This is 34 lb more gain per pig using 26 lb less feed. Also keep in mind that the feed in 1987 was most likely corn/soybean meal with added fat. In 2013, participants in the MetaFarms recording system were big users of DDGS and other lower cost ingredients that lowered their cost of gain versus feeding $8 corn so on a caloric efficiency basis the improvements are even more dramatic.

Source: MNpork