10 The Business of Canadian Hog Farming Better Pork | December 2024 REDUCING METHANE EMISSIONS You can’t manage what you can’t measure. You also can’t take meaningful action if you don’t know where you’re starting from – and it’s that lack of ground-truthed science which is often a source of frustration for farmers when policymakers set arbitrary targets or goals for the industry to work toward. That’s certainly the case when it comes to reducing methane emissions from livestock production. How much is actually being produced, and how much should the reduction be? What are the most effective solutions to create that change that will also be practical and affordable to implement on farm? This is the impetus behind a Living Lab – Ontario project that is taking a deep dive into reducing methane emissions from liquid manure storages on swine and dairy farms. It’s been estimated that methane emissions from manure account for around one million tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions in Ontario, which adds up to a significant portion of the carbon footprint of the province’s pork and dairy production. The good news is that manure storage is a prime opportunity for emissions reduction that can be achieved in the short term. “The methane emissions from manure are an area that can be reON-FARM LIVING LAB RESEARCH IS LOOKING FOR ANSWERS HOW MUCH METHANE ARE SWINE BARNS ACTUALLY PRODUCING? … AND HOW CAN THAT BE REDUCED? BY LILIAN SCHAER, FOR LIVESTOCK RESEARCH INNOVATION CORPORATION Jodie Aldred photo
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