Farmscape for February 3, 2017

A research Scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada says, as the human demand for protein grows, it will become increasingly important for livestock producers  to make more efficient use of the nutrients fed to livestock.
As part of research being conducted in partnership with Swine Innovation Porc, scientists are developing precision feeding strategies designed to provide each pig with the exact amount of nutrients necessary to optimize growth.
Dr. Candido Pomar, a Research Scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, told those on hand yesterday for the 2017 Manitoba Swine Seminar, by tailoring rations to meet the specific nutritional needs of each pig, farmers will be able to reduce the total amount of nutrients provided to the herd by about 25 percent.

Clip-Dr. Candido Pomar-Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada:
We are expecting, in the coming years, that we are going to be competing with human nutrition because the human population is growing more and more and also meat consumption is growing, particularly driven by China.
China's consumption per capita is increasing very fast so it is not going to too long that available protein has to be used for humans and animals so Improving the efficiency is an essential element because otherwise we are going to be in competition with human nutrition and we can not be there.
Another side of being more efficient is we can raise pigs more economically and also without harming the environment because all the nutrients that are ingested by the animals that are not retained are excreted.
That means, if we are able to use two kilos of protein to produce one kilo of animal protein, we are going to reduce by 40 to 50 percent the excretion of nitrogen.

Dr. Pomar says, by tailoring the nutritional content of rations to provide each pig with exactly what it needs to maximize growth, farmers will be able to cut production costs while also reducing the amount of nutrients excreted into the environment.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork