Reducing Energy Costs in Swine Barns

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on January 1, 2007

Swine production involves energy intensive tasks. With increasing energy prices, reducing energy use is imperative to reduce overall cost of production in swine operations. The goals of the current phases of this study are to gather benchmark information on current energy usage in swine barns, to conduct energy audits to document energy use practices in various types of swine barns, and to evaluate different applicable energy-saving measures using computer simulation. Twenty-eight (28) different swine facilities participated in the energy survey conducted in February 2007. From each barn, information was obtained on barn energy use and pig production numbers over the past 3 years. Based on the results of the survey, four barns were selected on which an energy audit and detailed energy use monitoring were conducted. Two of the barns were among the highest energy users (per animal) and the other two were among those that used the least energy per animal. Results of the survey and energy audits showed that within each barn type, some barns used significantly higher energy than the overall mean for all barns of the same type while others used substantially less than the mean, indicating that there are significant opportunities for improving energy use practices in some barns to reduce overall energy costs. Understanding the patterns of how energy is utilized in each barn is valuable in determining energy conservation strategies that would work best for each particular operation. The outcome of this project is expected to help guide pork producers in managing the use of energy in their operations more efficiently, thereby reducing overall energy costs. The next step would be to use computer simulation to evaluate different energy saving measures and to quantify the reduction in energy costs that can be achieved from implementation of these strategies.

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