Nutrition

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Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan


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Author(s): François Dubeau · Pierre-Olivier Julien · Candido Pomar
Publication Date: October 22, 2009
Reference: Annals of Operations Research
Country: Canada

Summary:

Traditionally a pig’s diets is created based on two pieces of criteria, growth and cost. A diet that focuses on maximizing growth and minimizing  costs overlooks some externalities such as environmental impacts. Nitrogen and phosphorus are two nutrients implemented in a pigs diet to enhance growth, although excessive amounts of these two nutrients in a diet will cause more of the nutrients to go undigested and excreted by the pig. When manure is disposed the excreted phosphorus and nitrogen build up in soils resulting in pollution of surface and ground water. This paper proposes a linear model which considers environmental impacts as well as economic impacts with the intentions of helping hog farmers and mill operators develop cost effective pig diets while not harming the environment. The authors developed a multi-criteria model that considers minimum nitrogen and phosphorus excretion and minimum costs. The models were based off real world diets and costs from Quebec and France and then compared. After making the comparisons the results showed that it is possible to limit the amount of harmful nutrients excreted while still keeping costs down. This information has value to producers, mill operators and also policy makers who can set limitations or incentives to help protect the environment from soil saturation.

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