Water conservation challenges outlined to international pork industry

With water becoming the next limiting resource in pork production, water management and conservation will be key to adapting to climate change, warns a prominent environmental researcher from the University of Regina in Saskatchewan.

"The greatest risk climate change presents is reduction in the amount, quality and distribution of water supplies, the result of a warmer, semi-arid climate," says David Sauchyn, whose presentation was part of the 2007 Banff Pork Seminar, an annual seminar that brings together national and international speakers and delegates from around the world.

"Although Alberta has the capacity to adapt to a warmer, drier climate and an overall history of adaptive management, the vulnerability to drought we see across the Prairie provinces suggests that we need to be better prepared at both an individual and community level."

There are a number of factors that leave large areas of the Prairie provinces vulnerable to climate change, says Sauchyn. "Research has clearly shown that the prairies had a historical susceptibility to drought long before the land was settled. We have been hit pretty hard by drought over the past 150 years, but it could get a lot worse."

The forecast is not entirely negative, says Sauchyn. The possibility of a warmer, longer growing season, for example, holds potential for many producers. "The key to these new opportunities, however, is a concerted effort to control greenhouse gas emissions and adopt policies that enable individuals, corporations and communities to adapt to a warmer and drier climate. The main role of individuals and small businesses such as farms will be to manage resources in order to build resistance to climate change."

An example of an individual effort to conserve water on the farm is a study by High River hog producer Dennis McKerracher. Speaking at the same session of the Banff Pork Seminar, McKerracher outlined his project, which compared the spill rate of ball bite water drinkers to standard water drinkers in a commercial hog barn over the course of one year and six batches of 500 pigs each.

"The idea was that ball bite water drinkers would reduce water usage because the pig must have the whole valve in its mouth and then bite down to release water," he says. "In contrast, a pig can easily release water from a standard water drinker by simply nudging the drinker, which wastes water and increases manure volume."

The ball bite groups used 35 percent less water over the year (a total of 133,149 litres) with 50 percent less water used in the summer. The high degree of monitoring generated several additional side benefits. "If there was any problem in ventilation, feed or health we knew it immediately because of the difference in water consumption."

McKerracher's goal was to control as many variables as possible. He particularly wanted to conduct the study over an entire year to account for seasonal and weather variations. "We wanted to make sure all the pigs coming into the barn had never been exposed to any kind of water drinker previously so they would have no preference of one over the other. We also made sure the pigs all came from the same suppliers," he says.

This is just one example of things agricultural producers are doing to conserve water and adapt to climate change, says McKerracher. "Environmentalism and agriculture are not oxymorons," he says. "Many producers are concerned about the environment and are taking action."

The Banff Pork Seminar, held annually since 1972, is one of the premier pork seminars in North America. The Seminar is co-ordinated by the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Alberta, in co-operation with Alberta Pork, Alberta Agriculture and Food and other pork industry representatives from across Canada. Full program and proceedings of the 2007 Banff Pork Seminar are available on the new Seminar Web site, www.banffpork.ca.

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