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Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Data Mining to Improve the Bottom Line
Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 2005 | No Comments
In recent years, the North American swine industry has evolved rather dramatically from being largely comprised of family-farming type businesses to being dominated by large integrated meat protein producing firms operating in several industries. Because of the changes associated with this evolution, the leaders of the swine industry have been transaction focused for too long. This includes buying new assets and making new deals. As leaders of the North American swine industry are forced to manage their businesses rather than just grow them in an effort to become competitive, their focus will increasingly be on making their businesses profitable. As has occurred with other non-agricultural industries, understanding opportunities to increase profitability through cost and revenue management will be integral to the success of pork businesses. Data mining will be the key to that understanding. You do not have to be good in mathematics to mine data, you just need to know arithmetic and be willing to study numbers.
ROLE OF INTERNAL NUTRIENT STORAGE IN DUCKWEED GROWTH FOR SWINE WASTEWATER TREATMENT
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UTILIZING WEB-BASED GIS AND SDSS FOR HYDROLOGICAL LAND USE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT
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Effects of composted swine manure on weed seedbank
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Evaluation of Four Farm-scale Systems for the Treatment of Liquid Pig Manure
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In some regions in the Netherlands, high pig concentrations and limited availability of arable land have led to a surplus of manure which results in high off-farm manure disposal costs. The aim of manure treatment is to lower manure transport costs by reducing the volume and to improve market prospects by changing the nutrient composition. The objective of this study was to promote the introduction of manure treatment in the Netherlands by giving research support to farmer initiatives and providing them with data on the actual performance of their system with regard to product composition, mass flows, gaseous emissions, and economic feasibility. Four farm-scale systems for treatment of liquid pig manure were studied: two systems for mechanical separation, one for nitrification/denitrification, and one for evaporation. The results showed that a wide range of manure products could be obtained that differ in dry matter, N, P, and K content. The emission
of ammonia and odour varied from 18 to 55gt1 [manure] and from 38103 to 13107 [European odour
units] t1 [manure], respectively. The nitrification/denitrification showed the highest emission of greenhouse gases (48 kg [carbon dioxide equivalents] t1 [manure]), mainly nitrous oxide (N2O), whereas the emission of the other systems was 12–17 kg [CO2-eq.] t1 [manure].
The critical success factor for the operation of the manure treatment installations turned out to be not of technical but of economical nature. The manure treatment costs, including variable and fixed cost, varied from 7 to 17h t1 (excluding value added tax). To be cost effective in comparison with the disposal of untreated manure, these costs must be balanced out by the sale or the lower disposal costs of the manure products. As market prospects and disposal costs for manure and its products differ from case to case, no generally preferred manure treatment technique can be pointed out from this study, as local market circumstances must be taken into account.
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emission in the Canadian Hog Sector
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The issue of greenhouse gas emissions is receiving increased attention in the Canadian agricultural industry. Internationally, many scientists agree that global climate change is occurring. It is believed that global warming is being caused by increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. To reduce the impact of climate change, the government of Canada has launched a number of national programs, some of which apply specifically to the agriculture industry.
The agriculture sector has been called upon to provide voluntary reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. On April 22, 2002, the Honorable Lyle Vanclief, Federal Minister of Agriculture, announced the Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Program for Canadian Agriculture funded under the Climate Change Action Fund 2000. This program is aimed at promoting the adoption of beneficial management practices, through communication and on-farm demonstration activities, which have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining or improving the economic viability of the farm.
Responsibilities for the program are being shared by four national agricultural industry groups: Soil Conservation Council of Canada, Dairy Farmers of Canada, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and the Canadian Pork Council. Thei nclusion of the four industry partners will allow the program to be tailored specifically to individual commodity producers, as well as provide an opportunity for the entire sector to work together to find solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Program Coordinator has been hired by the Canadian Pork Council to represent the pork industry in the program and implement this three-year program for the hog sector.
A planning workshop, held in December 2002, provided the CPC with stakeholder feedback and guidelines for undertaking communications with producers out ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on their farms. There has been considerable concern within the producer community that mitigation strategies will be costly and that emissions targets for the industry are not economically feasible. This is not necessarily the case, as most management practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions are the result of improved production efficiency, which generally result in increased profitability.
Some of the management practices that the program will highlight include: hog ration manipulation to maximize growth efficiency and reduce manure nutrient excretion, matching hog manure application rates and timing to crop nutrient uptake, and the use of manure storage covers to decrease methane produced during storage.
Beneficial management practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, through the development of infrastructure on demonstration sites, the program will provide opportunities for western Canadian universities and research institutions to conduct practical on-farm research, and collect valuable economic data. This will better enable producers to determine whether the demonstrated practices can be worked into their individual operations.
Among the first projects tobe funded through the Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Program is the development of a “Guidebook for Environmental Management in the Hog Industry”. It will serve as a benchmark for environmentalmanagement information for the Canadian hog industry, and inform producers of the latest research findings . One factor that sets thisguidebook apart from those developed previously is the inclusion of economic analysis for all the management practices discussed, allowing producers to evaluate the viability of the practices on their own farms.
Regular updates on theGreenhouse Gas Mitigation Program will be featured in each edition of the Western Hog Journal over the next year and will include details on the management practices being demonstrated across Canada, as well as local events that producers may wish to attend. For more information about the program, please contact Cedric MacLeod, Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Program Coordinator for the Canadian Pork Council