Contact/s:
Elena Bortolazzo
e.bortolazzo@crpa.it
Adaptation and Mitigation Measures on European Pig Farms: Insights from Cllimate Farm Demo Network
Europe
All
Pigs
Adaptation and mitigation measures
Thematic Areas
Production System/s
Summary for Practicioners on the Main Finding(s)/Innovative solution(s)
The EU is the world’s second-largest producer of pork, after China, and remains the biggest global exporter of pork and pork products. Despite the clear economic importance of this sector across Europe, only 3% of the PDFs (Pilot Demo Farms) included in the CFD project are pig farms.
The project sample is distributed mainly in France and Denmark, two countries which together represent roughly half of the total number of pig farms within the project
To improve their environmental performance, participating farmers predominantly select targeted measures in animal nutrition and management.
Key nutritional interventions include replacing imported protein supplements with regional alternatives (e.g., substituting imported soy with locally grown rapeseed, sorghum, or protein peas) and supplementing diets with essential synthetic amino acids (such as L-lysine, L-threonine). Balancing these amino acids allows for a reduction in total crude protein and concentrated feed, significantly reducing nitrogen excretion while improving how efficiently pigs use dietary nitrogen.
Beyond nutrition, renewable energy production was selected by approximately 36% of the pig farms assessed, with approximately 36% of participating farms adopting solar power or biogas systems.
Finally, effluent management represents the third most selected group of measures, focusing heavily on covering slurry tanks to limit atmospheric ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions, acting as a physical barrier that limits diffusion into the atmosphere.
This approach is particularly relevant given that uncovered slurry storage is one of the main sources of ammonia volatilization and methane release on pig farms.
Summary for Practicioners in Native Language
L’UE è il secondo produttore mondiale di carne suina, dopo la Cina, e rimane il maggiore esportatore globale di carne suina e prodotti derivati. Nonostante l’evidente importanza economica di questo settore in tutta Europa, solo il 3% delle PDF (Pilot Demo Farms) incluse nel progetto CFD è costituito da allevamenti suinicoli. Queste aziende agricole sono concentrate principalmente in Francia e Danimarca, due Paesi che insieme rappresentano circa la metà del numero totale di allevamenti suinicoli registrati nell’ambito del progetto.
Per migliorare l’impatto ambientale, gli allevatori partecipanti hanno selezionato prevalentemente interventi mirati nell’ambito della nutrizione e della gestione animale.
I principali interventi nutrizionali includono la sostituzione delle materie prime proteiche di importazione con alternative regionali (ad esempio, sostituendo la soia importata con colza, sorgo o piselli proteici coltivati localmente) e l’integrazione della dieta con amminoacidi sintetici essenziali (come L-lisina e L-treonina). Il bilanciamento di questi amminoacidi consente di ridurre le proteine grezze totali della dieta e i mangimi concentrati, riducendo significativamente l’escrezione di azoto e aumentando al contempo l’efficienza azotata della dieta.
Oltre alla nutrizione, la produzione di energia rinnovabile ha preso fortemente piede, con circa il 36% delle aziende partecipanti che ha adottato l’energia solare o impianti a biogas.
Infine, la gestione degli effluenti rappresenta il terzo gruppo di misure più adottato, concentrandosi in particolare sulla copertura delle vasche dei liquami per limitare le emissioni atmosferiche di ammoniaca e gas serra, agendo come barriera fisica che ne limita la diffusione nell’atmosfera. Questo approccio è particolarmente rilevante dal momento che lo stoccaggio dei liquami non coperto costituisce una delle principali fonti di volatilizzazione dell’ammoniaca e di rilascio di metano negli allevamenti suinicoli.
Additional Information
This Practice Abstract (PA) synthesizes the core interests, operational realities, and practical needs of pig producers in the Climate Farm Demo (CFD) network. The combination of the analyzed farm data with monitoring results which will be available in the next years, the project will be albe to provide real-world insights that bridge the gap between theory and action in swine production.
This PA offers targeted value across multiple agricultural stakeholders:
For farmers and Climate Farm Advisor, it is an operational benchmark and source of peer-to-peer inspiration. It provides examples on measures selected by other farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to optimize resource efficiency.
For other stakeholders, such as policy makers, and researchers, this PA helps to identify key sector priorities, to direct financial and technical resource allocation and to guide future research efforts toward high-impact areas in sustainable livestock farming.
Nevertheless, findings presented in this analysis are limited by the number of pig farms in CFD network and their location. The geographical scope focuses primarily on pig production systems in Denmark and France. While these two countries represent the major number of PDFs in CFD, broader generalizations across other territories should be made with caution. A more comprehensive, multi-regional evaluation covering the full range of climate mitigation measures for the pig sector will be detailed in the upcoming Deliverable D2.1 report.