Welfare and environmental impact of organic pig production (original) (raw)
The intensive pig farming system is mainly focused on getting a bigger production per animal, in a short time, so that the economic efficiency of the operation to be as high as possible. But this system does not take into account the modification of animal behavior, environmental pollution by fossil fuel consumption and the major difficulties encountered in the recovery and degradation of manure. Organic breeding of pigs is an alternative to this system. The demand for meat obtained from pigs reared in organic farms is increasingly high, especially in countries with higher living standards, whose citizens have incomes that allow them to choose quality, considering that all products obtained in the organic farming system are more expensive than those obtained in conventional farming system. The traditional intensive agriculture which aims to achieve the highest productivity per area unit or per animal in a short time, recently is increasingly challenged. The most challenged are reari...
2018
Outdoor organic pig production is associated with significant risk of nitrogen (N) leaching with a subsequent increased risk of polluting nearby surface and ground water sources. Contributing factors are high input of supplementary feed and a relatively high animal stocking density combined with pigs’ heterogeneous deposition of urine and faeces within the paddock. In addition, pigs’ rooting behaviour destroys the grass cover, which adds to the risk of nitrate leaching. In particular, risk of leaching severely increases during winter with periods of high rainfall and impaired grass growth. Based on concerns for the environment, snout ringing of sows is common practice. However, as pigs have a high motivation for rooting, this is a source of conflict between animal welfare and nutrient efficiency concerns according to the organic principles. Therefore, based on pigs’ species-specific and natural behaviour, the overall aim of the PhD project was to contribute to development of alterna...
Effect of Three Husbandry Systems on Environmental Impact of Organic Pigs
Sustainability
This study examined the environmental impact of the three common organic pig husbandry systems, indoor (n = 24), partly outdoor (n = 30), and outdoor (n = 10), in eight European countries. Global warming (GWP), acidification (AP), and eutrophication potential (EP) was assessed per 1000 kg pig live weight on 64 farrow-to-finish pig production chains (cradle to farm gate). GWP, AP, and EP varied greatly, and the most important source was feed production, followed by housing. GWP did not differ between systems (p = 0.934), but AP in indoor systems and EP in outdoor systems were higher than in partly outdoor systems (p = 0.006 and p = 0.010, respectively). The higher AP in indoor systems can mainly be explained by NH3 arising from manure spreading, while PO4-eq arising from feed consumption and emissions on pasture accounted for the higher EP in outdoor systems. Associations of farm characteristics with (reduced) environmental impacts were mainly found for AP and EP, and included: (Incr...
Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture, 2007
BACKGROUND: There is a need for information on the performance and carcass quality of pigs under different organic management systems. This study compared Duroc-sired progeny from three maternal breed types when kept either at pasture or in housing with an outdoor run and offered ad libitum concentrate either alone or with fodder beet or grass/clover silage as additional forage.RESULTS: Liveweight gain, feed intake and the proportion of forages consumed did not differ between genotypes. Carcass fatness of progeny was lowest for a ‘modern’ genotype (Camborough 12) and highest for a ‘traditional’ purebred genotype (Saddleback), with a ‘crossbred traditional’ genotype (Saddleback × Duroc) being intermediate (11.4, 14.3 and 13.4 mm P2 respectively, standard error of mean (SEM) 0.27, P < 0.001). With a cereal-based concentrate available ad libitum, intake of forages was low (<2% of dry matter intake). Although growth rate did not differ between housing systems, daily feed intake was greater at pasture (2.47 vs 2.22 kg meal equivalent, SEM 0.05, P < 0.001), giving poorer feed efficiency (P < 0.01). Pastured animals consumed less additional forage and had a higher killing-out % but similar carcass fatness.CONCLUSION: For organic pig production to be financially sustainable, disadvantages arising from the genotype and/or rearing system chosen need to be offset by a market premium for the pigs produced. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry
Ways of preventing and reducing negative effects on the environment on pig farms
2015
Intensive raising of pigs generates a significant impact on environmental factors, i.e. on soil, surface waters and underground waters because of untreated waste waters or of waste waters that are not enough treated discharged into natural water courses and of wastes used uncontrollably to fertilise the lands, on the air, because of gas emissions and of aerosols resulted from metabolic processes and from waste management, i.e. the noise and smell that affect farm neighbourhoods. By applying measures that aim at protecting water, air, soil, and underground waters quality, reducing noise and vibrations, negative effects on the environment can be prevented or minimised to make the impact range of activities within admissible limits.
2015
ProPIG consists of 9 partners in 8 countries (AT, CH, CZ, DE, DK, FR, IT, UK) with the aim to assess and improve animal welfare and environmental impact of organic pig farming: • Three husbandry systems: indoor with outside run (IN) / partly outdoor (POUT) / outdoor (OUT) were defined and compared. • Standard Operating Procedures (‘SOPs’) were created for Feed- and Soil Sampling and the process of assessment and feedback (‘Health and welfare planning’). • Animal welfare assessment protocols were developed based on WelfareQuality® and CorePIG. Together with questions regarding environmental impact, nutrition and economy these were integrated into an • Automated Recording and Feedback Software Tool (‘PigSurfer’= PIG SURveillance, FEedback and Reporting), a software tool enabling on-farm data collection and immediate feedback (including presentation of data as benchmarking) using a tablet computer. • Farm visits: After repeated observer training, three visits were carried out, in AT (1...
Increased Foraging in Outdoor Organic Pig Production—Modeling Environmental Consequences
Foods, 2015
Consumers' motivations for buying organic products include a wish of acquiring healthy, environmentally friendly products from production systems that also ensure a high level of animal welfare. However, the current Danish organic pig production faces important challenges regarding environmental impact of the system. High ammonia emissions arise from outdoor concrete areas with growing-finishing pigs and sows on pasture possess an increased risk of nitrogen (N) leaching. Direct foraging in the range area is suggested as a way to improve the nutrient efficiency at farm level and to support a more natural behavior of the pig. Thus, by modeling, we investigated the environmental consequences of two alternative scenarios with growing-finishing pigs foraging in the range area and different levels of crops available for foraging; grass-clover (lowest integration of forage) or a combination of lucerne, grass-clover and Jerusalem artichokes (highest integration of forage). It was possible to have growing-finishing pigs on free-range without increasing N leaching compared to the current practice. The alternative system with lucerne, grass-clover and Jerusalem artichokes showed the lowest carbon footprint with 3.12 CO2 eq kg −1 live weight pig compared to the current Danish pasture based system with 3.69 kg CO2 eq kg −1 live weight pig. Due to positive impact on soil carbon sequestration, the second alternative system based on grass-clover showed a similar carbon foot print compared to current practice with 3.68 kg CO2 eq kg −1 live weight pig. It is concluded that in practice there is room for development of organic pig production systems where direct foraging plays a central role.
Organic pig production–With particular reference to Danish production conditions
2005
While there is a markedly growth in organically farmed land and in the organic food sector as such in Europe and North America, the organic pig sector has not developed correspondingly in most countries. This weaker development seems most likely to be due to difficulties for pig producers to comply with the organic standards, which impose comparatively more pronounced changes in the way of production than e.g. in ruminant production systems. Pig should have access to roughage and to grazing in the summer period although finishers can be kept in barns if access to an outdoor rum. A common way to comply with these regulations is to have sows on grassland all year round, but to rear the finishers in stables. Outdoor piglet production can be very efficient but careful measures needs to be taken to avoid environmental risks. Ringing of sows to avoid rooting on the grassland is a matter of concern. The regulations for housing include a considerable larger area per pig than in conventional production. This support good production and health results in the finisher production, and the regulation stating no tail docking does not seem to impose problems. However, such stables are often very expensive to establish and outdoor rearing of finishers throughout the growing period should be considered. Recent results indicate that this is a viable option. The ban on use of synthetic amino acids and GMO products for feeding represent a challenge in the feeding of finishers. There is a risk regarding carcass quality when soybean meal and amino acid are substituted with more oil rich ingredients for protein supply. On the other hand inclusion of new protein sources in the diet may results in particular meat quality characteristics including positive effects. It is concluded that there is a need in organic pig production to produce "new" products, which differ from the conventional pork products in order to comply with consumer expectations.
Effect of husbandry systems on the environmental impact of pig production
Acta Agriculturae Slovenica, 2013
Pig production is pointed out as a major contributor to main environmental issues, either at a global (global warming, energy used) or a local level (eutrophication, acidification...). Many studies have been conducted in recent years in order to quantify the effects of farming practices on the environmental impact of pig production. Amount and composition of pig manure are highly dependent on feed composition, animals housing and manure management, which also affect gaseous emissions. More recently, methodologies, such as life cycle assessment, have been developed for the environmental evaluation of contrasted pig farming systems. This allows a multi-criteria evaluation of systems including climate change, eutrophication, acidification, energy use, land use... The aim of the present paper is to review the different methodologies and data available for the environmental evaluation of pig production with a special attention to the specificities of traditional systems.