By Bruce Cochrane
The CEO of the Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement says the adoption of new technologies will help make Canadian pork more competitive while improving the product for consumers.
The Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement is coordinating a multi-institutional multi-disciplinary project on behalf of Swine Innovation Porc which is exploring the use of novel technologies to optimize pig performance, welfare and carcass value.
Centre CEO Brian Sullivan explains the goal is to adapt innovations such as systems to record individual water consumption, infrared cameras, accelerometers and near infrared reflectance spectroscopy, for use on commercial farms and in packing plants in Canada.
Brian Sullivan-Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement:
We've got already in Canada very strong industry that's important to our economy.
The hog sector producers pork for Canadians but also exports two thirds of production around the world and so that's important economically and also to feed people here and around the world.
These technologies will help ensure that we remain competitive.
From the other perspective though this is going to give the industry the tools to target things that really matter to consumes and those could be social considerations such as making sure that the welfare of the pigs is as high as it possibly can be.
It can also though mean that we can target attributes of pork that really matter to consumers so that when consumers are eating pork they find it tasty, nutritious and safe and these novel, technologies will help contribute to make pork even better than it is today.
The project kicked off in 2013 and will wrap in 2017.
Source: Farmscape