Innovative feed concepts such as "Feeding the future" provide environmentally friendly and more sustainable feeding for pigs without increasing production or consumer costs. AGRAVIS Raiffeisen AG addresses sustainability-related topics and thus helps to meet the requirements of modern animal farming and food production.
Sample criteria for the “Eco-Efficiency Manager for Pigs” are land use or resource depletion as well the costs of raw materials and production. The feed is studied from its origin, i.e. raw material production, through to the living pig. The comparison of a conventional feed mix with the innovative "Feeding the future” concept shows that the latter has significantly fewer environmental effects while keeping feed costs constant.
Improved ecological footprint
More specifically, in this case, the reduction in the raw protein content in favour of grain and amino acids has improved the ecological footprint of the "Feeding the future" concept. If we take feed production for 1,000 kilograms of live pig weight and the specific assumptions and formulas used in the study, this also results in:
- A 15 per cent improvement in soil fertility (measured by the change in the soil's carbon content).
- The reduction in marine eutrophication (i.e. nitrogen emissions into the water) by almost 18 per cent.
- The reduction of freshwater eutrophication (i.e. phosphorus emissions into the water) by a good 8 per cent.
- The elimination of almost 24 per cent of the acidification effects.
- The reduction of climate effects (in CO2 equivalents) by a good 21 per cent.