On-demand: Webinar on sustainability in pig production

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The webinar was held in cooperation with Cargill Animal Nutrition, featuring speakers Dr Alexandra Experton, sustainability leader at Cargill Animal Nutrition, EMEA; and Rosalie van Emous, senior technology lead sustainability at Cargill Animal Nutrition and Health. Both speakers alternated speaking during the webinar.

Paradigm shift in the world of animal production

In her introduction, Dr Experton explained set the stage for where livestock farming is headed. She touched on both the climate situation as well as the need to feed a growing population. In the past, she said, animal production was focused on themes like “health,” “performance” and “economics.” There has been a paradigm shift, she said, as today topics have widened, to become “health & welfare,” “sustainability” and “performance and economics.”

Finisher phase with the highest impact

Rosalie van Emous then took over focusing on a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to determine the environmental impacts associated with all stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process or service. She showed that raw materials, especially oil seeds and second cereal grains, had the most impact on the carbon footprint, and that the finisher phase provides the highest impact (over 47%) of the total, with the other phases being post-weaning 1, post-weaning 2 and grower phase.

Solutions to improve sustainability

Van Emous went through a series of potential solutions that could be named.

• Sustainable sourcing of raw materials: for instance Triple P Soy and novel ingredients like for instance insect oil;

• Achieving precision nutrition through connecting digital decision-making tools to feeding strategies;

• Reducing nitrogen excretion and water usage;

• Optimising diets and improving welfare, e.g. ConverMax

To review the webinar, click here