A swine nutritionist with the University of Saskatchewan says the introduction of carbon pricing could change the equation when considering the inclusion of low cost high fibre feed ingredients into swine rations.
Researchers with the University of Saskatchewan's College of Agriculture and Bioresources are examining the carbon footprint left by using high fibre alternative feed ingredients in swine rations.
Dr. Denise Beaulieu, an Assistant Professor Monogastric Nutrition, explains ingredients such as peas or byproducts such as wheat mids are used to lower feed costs but these high fibre ingredients would increase methane and carbon dioxide output as the fibres are fermented in the gut of the pig.
Clip-Dr. Denise Beaulieu-University of Saskatchewan:
This work is primarily for the pork producers and it will allow them to use these ingredients with more confidence and into the future.
For example, I know it's political, but let's say there was a scenario where carbon pricing came into play for our pork production industry and then we would have to put a cost on for example high fibre ingredients.
This data could more accurately allow us to look at the cost of these high fibre ingredients and the role that they might play in terms of the overall carbon footprint of pork production.
For example right now producers use the wheat mids and peas, they're primarily brought into the diet on a least cost basis.
We put these into the diets so we can meet all the nutritional requirements of the pig but at a lower cost so that's the status quo.
But, for example, going into the future, if we add increasing amounts of these into the diet we may want to consider the carbon footprint of including these into the diet because that could be an additional cost that we'd want to consider.
Dr. Beaulieu says this data could allow us to accurately determine the cost and the overall carbon footprint of pork production.
Source : farmscape