The impact of the pork industry: Mitigation of GHG Emissions in the Pork Industry (3/4)
Addressing climate change in the pork industry requires a good strategy, encompassing every stage from feed production to manure management, farming practices, renewable energy, and transportation.
Mitigation of GHG Emissions in the Pork Industry (3/4)
What You Will Learn from This Blog
Addressing climate change in the pork industry requires a comprehensive strategy, encompassing every stage from feed production to manure management, farming practices, renewable energy, and transportation. This blog highlights the holistic methods employed to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the industry, viewed through a life cycle assessment (LCA) & financial perspective and based upon scientific research and expertise.
Key Takeaways:
Optimising Transportation Routes: Reduces travel distance, fuel consumption, and emissions by 13% to 18%, enhancing overall efficiency.
Adopting Fuel-Efficient and Electric Vehicles: Lowers the carbon footprint with vehicles that consume less fuel and produce fewer GHGs, contributing to cleaner transportation.
Implementing Sustainable Farming Practices: Uses leguminous crops, precision fertilisation, and efficient irrigation to reduce synthetic fertiliser use and GHG emissions.
Utilising Renewable Energy Sources: Employs solar, wind, and geothermal energy to replace fossil fuels, reducing carbon emissions and enhancing energy efficiency.
Effective Manure Management: Utilises manure as a fertiliser substitute, enhances soil carbon sequestration, and employs advanced treatment technologies to minimise emissions.
By adopting a holistic approach and considering the entire life cycle of pork production, the industry can achieve significant reductions in GHG emissions, improving sustainability & financial impact and accelerate operational efficiency.
Transportation
One effective strategy is optimising transportation routes to ensure the shortest and most efficient paths are used. By doing so, the distance travelled by vehicles is minimised, which in turn reduces fuel consumption and emissions. Studies have shown that optimising routes can decrease GHG emissions by 13% to 18% at this stage. Adopting fuel-efficient vehicles is another key strategy. These vehicles are designed to use less fuel per kilometre travelled, thus reducing the overall carbon footprint. Electric vehicles (EVs) or hybrid vehicles offer even greater potential for emissions reductions, as they produce fewer GHGs compared to conventional diesel or petrol vehicles.
Consolidating shipments to ensure that vehicles are fully loaded can also significantly reduce emissions. This practice reduces the number of trips required, thereby cutting down on fuel consumption and associated emissions. For example, combining the transportation of feed ingredients, live pigs, and processed products can streamline logistics and enhance efficiency. Where feasible, reducing the distances that goods and animals need to be transported can have a substantial impact. Establishing regional slaughterhouses and processing facilities closer to farms can minimise the distance that pigs need to be transported, thus reducing emissions. Similarly, sourcing feed ingredients locally can also lower transportation-related emissions. Policy measures and technological advancements play a crucial role in supporting these strategies. Governments can provide incentives for the adoption of fuel-efficient and electric vehicles, as well as for the development of localised supply chains. Technological innovations, such as advanced logistics software, can help optimise route planning and shipment consolidation, further enhancing efficiency.
Feed Production
Reducing the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers, optimising fertiliser management, and increasing the rotation of leguminous crops can effectively lower GHG emissions. Leguminous crops, which biologically fix nitrogen, can reduce the need for synthetic fertilisers, thereby decreasing CO2, N2O, and NH3 emissions associated with fertiliser manufacture, transport, and application.
Different feedstock materials have varying carbon footprints due to differences in cultivation practices. Optimising nitrogen fertiliser application rates by using the best estimate for an economic optimum nitrogen rate, growing crops with lower nitrogen requirements, and ensuring accurate application, such as calibrating application machinery, can improve efficiency and reduce nitrogen fertiliser use. Implementing precision fertilisation and efficient irrigation management can reduce the input of chemical fertilisers during the cultivation of forage crops, leading to increased crop yields and diminished losses of reactive nitrogen. As a result, GHG emissions during the cultivation phase can be lowered by 13% to 22%.
Nitrification inhibitors can slow the microbial conversion of ammonium-N to nitrate-N, reducing the risk of nitrogen loss through leaching or denitrification, and thus increasing the nitrogen-use efficiency of fertilisers. Research has shown that using nitrification inhibitors and urease inhibitors not only reduces NH3 and N2O emissions but also lowers the extent of nitrogen leaching to the surface and groundwater. For instance, inhibitors such as dicyandiamide and N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide significantly reduce N2O emissions when applied in combination with ammonium nitrate and urea fertilisers.
Adopting sustainable farming practices can also effectively mitigate carbon emissions during feed production. Organic agriculture can enhance soil organic carbon content, reduce chemical usage, and safeguard agricultural ecosystems, thereby efficiently sequestering carbon and reducing emissions. Establishing an ecosystem-friendly crop planting structure can further contribute to emission reduction. For example, increasing the cultivation areas of wheat, sorghum, soybeans, and vegetables has been shown to lower emissions, while expanding the cultivation areas of rice, maize, and peanuts can elevate emissions.
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, and geothermal energy, provide a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas, which are primary contributors to carbon emissions. Among these, solar energy is particularly compatible with agricultural production activities, including pig farming. However, the high initial costs associated with solar-powered operations, particularly for the installation of panels and related infrastructure, pose a challenge. Reducing the costs of sensors and control units for solar energy conversion can mitigate this issue considerably, making solar energy a more viable option.
Proper insulation in pig pens during the colder autumn and winter months can also prevent heat loss, thereby reducing the need for electricity and fossil fuels for heating. This measure alone can result in significant energy savings and lower emissions. Additionally, upgrading equipment and replacing outdated devices with energy-saving alternatives can enhance energy efficiency. For instance, installing energy-efficient heating equipment and utilising geothermal or other renewable energy sources for heating can contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of pig farming operations.
Manure Management
In medium-scale pig farming areas, nearby farmland can effectively utilise manure as a substitute for a portion of chemical fertilisers, thereby reducing CO2 emissions associated with fertiliser production. By replacing energy-intensive chemical fertilisers with pig manure, the overall energy demand for fertiliser production is decreased. Additionally, increasing the organic matter in soil through the application of pig manure can enhance soil’s carbon sequestration capacity, reducing atmospheric CO2 levels and mitigating global warming.
It is important to recognise that the nutrient content in pig manure varies among different farms due to differences in feed composition and pig digestion rates. Proper composting practices, such as controlling the ventilation rate (0.1–0.3 L/kg/min), maintaining a moisture content of 60–65%, and achieving a carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio of 20–25, can effectively reduce GHG emissions. Before applying pig manure to fields, it is essential to determine the nutrient content of the manure and apply it in a manner that meets the nutrient requirements of the crops. Regulating the scale of pig farming based on the land’s capacity for manure assimilation and designing pig feeding strategies according to the specific growth characteristics of local crops are recommended practices.
Minimising the use of antibiotics in pig production is crucial to prevent residual antibiotics from entering the environment and food chain, which can have adverse effects on human health. The intensification and large-scale operations in pig production often result in manure production exceeding the absorption capacity of nearby farmland. To address this, a combination of technologies such as freezing, concentration, and membrane filtration can be employed to treat the manure. This involves anaerobic fermentation of the manure, processing the solid fraction into organic fertiliser through composting, treating the liquid fraction through reverse osmosis to meet wastewater discharge standards, and freezing and concentrating the remaining slurry to refine the nutrients.
Large-scale pig farms should also improve facilities for separating rainwater and wastewater and implement water-saving measures in pig houses, such as regulating water flow and using water-saving drinkers, to reduce the overall volume of slurry. Installing separate drainage pipes during the disinfection and cleaning of pens can enhance the effectiveness of manure treatment. A significant number of trace elements, such as copper and zinc, are used in pig farming to meet the nutritional requirements of animals and promote growth, leading to their accumulation in pig manure. Research has shown that after applying pig manure as fertiliser, the concentrations of copper, zinc, lead, and cadmium in the soil can increase significantly by 73%, 32%, 106%, and 127%, respectively.
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