The Chair of Swine Innovation Porc says collaborative research involving industry and university and government researchers creates a win win situation for all players within the Canadian pork value chain.
In May 2010 federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz announced funding for initiatives aimed at boosting the competitive edge of the Canadian pork industry, including 9.5 million dollars to create a Canadian Swine Research and Development Cluster, now know as Swine Innovation Porc.
Claude Miville, the chair of Swine Innovation Porc, says today the organization has more than 100 researchers from 15 universities and federal research stations across Canada working in collaboration on 14 different projects.
Miville-Swine Innovation Porc:
We have a transfer group who is working closely with the researchers to be sure that as soon as we have the result that we are able to integrate it in our farms.
This is coordinated with Prairie Swine Centre and with CDPQ, which is the equivalent of Prairie Swine Centre but in Quebec, and those guys work together to help us to transfer the results to the producers.
One of the game changers for example, we are testing a new system, automatic feeding equipment for hogs.
If we can succeed in this equipment we think that in some year from now we could diminish the cost of production by a certain amount, that is very interesting and we also can diminish the level of effects from phosphorus and nitrogen.
That point is very important on the environmental point.
We also have projects on animal welfare.
We expect very good results on those projects but we can be sure that, as soon as we have those results, we will be able to transfer it rapidly to our partners.
By: Bruce Cochrane.