Pig Production

The primary purpose of pig farming is the production of meat, including pork and bacon. Large-scale industrial pig production involves large herds, ranging from 600 to 12,000 head for fattening at any one time, all housed in confinement. Sow units have generally 100 or more sows. Only improved high productive breeds and commercial feeds are used. The distribution of industrial pig production is strongly correlated with population density (with urbanization as a criterion) and annual income per capita. Apart from this there are in certain areas religious objections to the raising of pigs, e.g. in countries with a predominantly Muslim or Jewish population only few pigs exist.

Pigs in the industrial system are housed throughout the world to achieve optimal climatic conditions. Pigs are essentially non-sweating animals with a sparse coat of hair and, therefore very sensitive to changes in climatic environment.
In pig production 2 phases of production are recognised: (1) sow farms (breeding and rearing); and (2) fattening farms (growing and finishing).

The large volumes of waste can cause soil, water and air pollution. Most effects are caused by emissions from manure in the form of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and various heavy metals. Emissions from manure in the stables, during storage, after application on soils or when manure is simply disposed of. Losses depend on the system of housing and manure management.

The water content of pig manure depends on the type of housing, manure collection and use of water during cleaning of the pigsties. Losses through leakage, run-off and evaporation could be high from manure with a low dry matter content, further the manure is bulky for and expensive for further transport and fossil fuel requirements are high in case of further processing through drying.

In industrial pig production systems uniform new developed and generally hybrid breeds are used. The role of traditional indigenous breeds is diminishing and there is a danger of extinction of these breeds and loss of animal biodiversity.

The following matrix indicates the most common Industrial risks associated with Pigs

Proceed to the Matrix of Underlying Problems and Potential Impacts

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