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One producer at a time: pork industry works to reduce GHG emissions

One producer at a time: pork industry works to reduce GHG emissions

Manitoba farmers find ways to increase efficiency of swine operations

 

By Kaitlynn Anderson

Staff Reporter

Farms.com

 

Pork producers want to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a recent FarmScape interview with George Matheson, chair of Manitoba Pork.

While the organization has not yet coordinated a program targeted to this goal, a number of swine producers have already taken action to become more efficient and reduce production costs, Mike Teillet, manager of sustainable development for Manitoba Pork told Farms.com yesterday.

One of these actions “is deep injection — or immediate incorporation — of manure with the use of long drag hoses and … precision application (technology),” said Teillet.

“Over 80 per cent of manure in Manitoba is applied this way.”

Farmers are also increasing the efficiency of their barns by using more insulation. This step can lower heating costs and the use of electricity, Teillet stated.

Another way that producers are lowering their carbon footprint is through the production of pigs themselves.

“Pigs are larger, grow faster and use relatively less water and feed than previous (breeds),” said Teillet. This improvement “lowers our environmental footprint per kilogram of pork.”

Producers might also look to renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, to reduce their impacts on the environment.

“We are aware of at least one producer in Manitoba who recently installed a large solar array for his farm,” said Teillet.

 


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Leman Swine Conference: Vaccination strategies to reduce PRRS virus recombination

Video: Leman Swine Conference: Vaccination strategies to reduce PRRS virus recombination

Dr. Jay Calvert, Research Director with Zoetis, recently spoke to The Pig Site’s Sarah Mikesell at the 2023 Leman Swine Conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, about his conference presentation on porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus recombination.

“The number one problem in PRRS these days from a vaccine point of view is the emergence of new strains of PRRS. Since the beginning, we have had new strains and a lot of diversity,” said Dr. Jay Calvert. “We thought we knew it was all about mutation changes in amino acids and the individual strains over time, but they take on new characteristics.”

With the onset of more common whole genome sequencing and recombination analysis, Dr. Calvert says there is another mechanism, and recombination seems to be a key factor.