Environmental management of pig-farming systems. a proposed set of indicators

The pork production industry faces a number of environmental challenges, and there is pressure on pig farms to internalize how environmental externalities are managed by deploying environmental management tools. A set of 9 pig barn performance indicators has been put forward. The rationale is to enable individual pig farms to run controls on their performance while enabling a network of farms to pool the results (thereby building a ‘reference framework’). These indicators measure direct consumption (water, energy) and emissions (NH3, greenhouse gases, and smells) and gauge output of excretions (N, P2O5, Cu and Zn) and waste, with the results quantified in kg/pig produced. The indicators are based on in-farm data and existing technical-economic methods of analysis. Results from 7 farms employing the indicator system demonstrated high inter-farm and intra-farm sensitivity, which is an advantage over straightforward averaged-out references. Certain indicators do require the deployment of measurement systems adapted to pig-farm settings in order to yield good-quality assessments. Studies are currently underway to launch a pilot network, which will work with actors from the sector to exploit the lessons learned.