Sustainability through precision swine feeding
In pork production, environmental impact is mainly centred on the excretion of excess nitrogen and phosphorus from feed. Through precision feeding, pigs can retain significantly more of the nitrogen found in the protein in their feed, and therefore excrete much less than pigs reared in conventional group phase feeding programmes.
BY TREENA HEIN, INDEPENDENT CORRESPONDENT S
everal years ago, a team of scientists from Brazil and Canada examined how much general environmental impact might be decreased in Brazilian swine pro- duction by switching from conventional feeding to
either of two precision swine feeding systems during in grow-finish production. These two systems were ‘precision daily feeding by group’ (PFG, where the whole herd is fed the same diet, adjusted each day) and ‘precision daily feeding by individual’ (PFI, where the diet of each pig is adjusted every day to meet each pig’s nutritional requirements). Overall, the scientists found that compared with conventional feeding, both precision feeding systems reduced potential environmental impact; they concluded that precision feeding is “clearly” an effective approach for improving the environ- mental sustainability of Brazilian pig production.
Nutrient excretion Last year, one of the same scientists, Dr Candido Pomar, pub- lished a study called Precision pig feeding: a breakthrough to- ward sustainability with Dr Aline Remus, both scientists at Ag- riculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Sherbrooke Research and Development Centre in Quebec. In this study, they note that livestock animals are generally quite inefficient in transforming nutrients in feed into food products (meat). In growing pigs, only 15 to 33% of protein (nitrogen), usually the most expensive component of feed, is retained. The rest of the N is excreted through urine, faeces and digestive gas. To make matters worse, because pig farmers want to make
46 ▶ SUSTAINABILITY AND WELFARE | OCTOBER 2020
sure the requirements of the most demanding animals in the herd are satisfied, many pigs in the herd receive more nutri- ents than they need. In addition, to account for variability in feed efficiency among pigs, potential individual health chal- lenges and other factors, safety margins are included when formulating diets in order to achieve the best group perfor- mance. These practices cause many pigs to therefore receive too much protein and excrete the excess N. Figure 1* shows how much of one amino acid, lysine, is typically given in the three phases of conventional feeding over time (solid line). This is a great deal more than pigs require; the orange line in- dicates the pigs’ actual daily requirements (MP100). To try and solve this – and to address the fact that nutrient requirements of growing pigs change over time – the conventional three-phase feeding regimen was created. In this scenario, one feed is provided at first, another for the middle growth phase and a third for the period approaching finish. While this practice does provide better matching of the nutrients in feed to the needs of pigs as they age, the problems of excess N excretion remain. However, if diets can be adjusted on a daily basis for the en- tire herd or preferably for each individual pig, much more closely matching feed components and amount of feed to the animals’ requirements, efficiency of nutrient utilisation
PHOTO: DR ALINE REMUS
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