Reducing greenhouse emissions in the pork industry

A study by the Cooperative Research Centre for High Integrity Australian Pork (Pork CRC) has found that greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are 38% lower in eco shelters and that 88% of the variability in production systems with common effluent management systems is related to herd feed conversion (HFC).

The project used life-cycle assessment (LCA) to benchmark greenhouse gas emissions from pork across the full production system, including emissions from feed production, housing, manure management and meat processing. 14 production units were assessed across different states and different production systems for at least 12 months.

Average emissions to the farmgate were 3.6 kg CO₂-e/kg live weight pork and 6.36 ±1.03 kg CO₂-e/kg wholesale (chilled bone-in) pork. The lowest modelled emissions were from a Queensland production farm using CAP-CHP systems (1.5 kg CO₂-e/kg LW), which is similar to Queensland chicken meat production (1.3 kg CO₂-e/kg LW).

Pork CRC CEO Dr Roger Campbell said it was interesting that deep litter housing resulted in a 38% reduction in GHG emissions compared to conventional housing, while biogas capture with heat and power generation resulted in a 31–64% reduction in GHG emissions from conventional housing. Outdoor production (in WA) also resulted in considerably reduced GHG emissions.

“Pork CRC’s Bioenergy Support Program has helped drive quite a move towards on-farm biogas capture and power generation and I expect GHG emissions to decline substantially over time,” he said.

“Also interesting was... [the] finding that for similar manure management systems, 88% of the variability in GHG could be predicted from differences in HFC, making it the most important production-related indicator of GHG emissions.”

Across the farms, HFC ranged from 2.4 to 3.3 on a live weight basis (3.2 to 4.3 on a carcass weight basis) and feed wastage ranged from 5.5 to 7.5% of total feed used.

These values represented 15.2 to 20.4 kg of feed lost per 100 kg of live weight produced. Individual units within farms had HFC values approaching 3.8 on a live weight basis.

Dr Campbell said that HFC’s influence on carbon emissions from pork production, along with its positive impact on profitability, indicated that more needs to be done to reduce feed waste and improve HFC.

“Based on these results, and those from Pork CRC’s benchmarking project, some producers have it under control and others have some way to go,” he said.

Dr Rob Wilson, leader of Pork CRC Program Four ‘Carbon Conscious Nutrient Inputs and Outputs’, said such a comprehensive attributional investigation of pork production demonstrated the potential for Australia’s pork industry to markedly reduce GHG emissions and move towards Pork CRC’s aspirational goal of 1 kg CO₂-e/kg LW.