Industry Focus
Industry Focus
Greenhouse Gases
The Australian pork industry only accounts for approx 0.4% of the national Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions which is significantly lower than other Australian livestock sectors such a beef (11.2%), sheep (3.4) and dairy (2.7%).
Most of the GHG associated with pork production relate to emissions from effluent ponds. In fact approx 66% of the pork supply chain is made up of effluent pond emissions. This provides us with a fantastic opportunity for GHG reductions of up to 80%. For further information see the Renewable Energy – Biogas page.
Even without mitigation Australian pork production is at the lower end (conventional) or better (deep litter) than international carbon footprints for pork. Adding long distance refrigerated transport can further add to the emissions profile and subsequent global impacts of imported pork.
The Australian pork Industry has set its self a goal to reduce emissions on farm to 1kg CO2 eq per kg pork produced.
Mitigating and utilising our waste from energy will see Australian production become the most environmental friendly in terms of global warming potential worldwide.
For further information download the Nutrients and Greenhouse Gas Fact Sheet and the Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Piggeries Fact Sheet.
PigGas Calculator
The Pork Industry Greenhouse Gas (PigGas) Calculator provides pork producers with a tool to calculate their piggery enterprise emissions and identify ways in which to reduce them.
The calculator models the emissions from any piggery production and manure management system combination using the methodology and calculation protocols developed by the Australian Government for its international reporting obligations. To download PigGas, click on the link below.
PigGas is a graphical spreadsheet calculator programmed in Microsoft Excel 2010. The user must have the Microsoft Excel 2010 or later version program loaded on their computer for PigGas to run. No technical support or help is provided by Australian Pork Limited to PigGas users. For background information and help, please refer to the ‘PigGas User Guide’ link below.
PigGas Studies
PigGas was used in a National Extension Project funded by Ian Kruger Consulting, the Australian Government and Australian Pork Limited. Baseline greenhouse gas emissions and emissions intensities were calculated on 55 piggeries representing 24% of Australia’s pork production. Emissions abatement strategies were also modelled for each piggery.
Typically, reducing feed wastage or increasing feeding efficiency by 5%, resulted in about a 10% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Modifying existing waste treatment and reuse systems could result in 15-25% emissions reductions. Housing pigs in deep litter pig sheds resulted in about 40% lower emissions compared with housing in conventional flushed sheds.
Maximum emissions abatement was found in conventional piggeries that treated manure in covered anaerobic ponds or tank digesters. These digesters capture and burn biogas methane to generate electricity for farm use and sales to the grid. In these cases, 75-84% of total on-farm greenhouse gas emissions could be mitigated and the emissions intensities fell from a calculated average of 4 to below 1 kilogram of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents per kilogram of pork produced.
Total on-farm emissions calculated from 24% pork production was 260,480 t CO2-e /y with potential abatement of 54% or 141,230 t CO2-e/y. On a whole industry basis, the maximum potential abatement is approximately 588,500 t/y. Baseline on-farm emissions intensities averaged 3.9 (0.3-16.7) kg CO2-e / kg HSCW with average potential abatement of 51% (0-84)% for all piggeries.
Applying emissions reduction options can lead to cost savings in feed or energy, improved manure management or new income streams from trading Australian Carbon Credit Units and electricity.
Individual ‘PigGas Reports’ and a ‘Summary of 55 PigGas Reports’ are provided in the links below.
To download, please click the links below:
- PigGas Calculator (.xlsm)
- PigGas User Guide
- Summary of 55 PigGas Reports
- PigGas Report 1 – 850 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery NSW
- PigGas Report 2 – 2,115 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery NSW
- PigGas Report 3 – 1,100 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 4 – 2,112 sow conventional breeder piggery NSW
- PigGas Report 5 – 200 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery NSW
- PigGas Report 6 – 1,043 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery NSW
- PigGas Report 7 – 4,300 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery NSW
- PigGas Report 8 – 7,883 pig wean to finish deep litter and conventional grow-out NSW
- PigGas Report 9 – 18,925 pig wean to finish conventional grow-out piggery NSW
- PigGas Report 10 – 660 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 11 – 4,000 pig conventional grow-finish piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 12 – 540 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 13 – 600 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery Vic
- PigGas Report 14 – 530 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery Vic
- PigGas Report 15 – 370 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery NSW
- PigGas Report 16 – 1,950 sow farrow to finish multi-site conventional piggery Vic
- PigGas Report 17 – 480 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery Vic
- PigGas Report 18 – 28,000 pig wean to finish conventional piggery Vic
- PigGas Report 19 – 1,200 sow farrow to finish conventional multi-site piggery WA
- PigGas Report 20 – 412 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery WA
- PigGas Report 21 – 2,976 sow farrow to finish and weaner production conventional piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 22 – 660 farrow to weaner conventional piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 23 – 160 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery Tas
- PigGas Report 24 – 110 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery Tas
- PigGas Report 25 – 450 sow farrow to finish deep litter piggery Tas
- PigGas Report 26 – 12,000 pig finisher unit, conventional piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 27 – 2,050 sow outdoor bred, wean to finish on deep litter, multi-site piggery WA
- PigGas Report 28 – 205 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery SA
- PigGas Report 29 – 740 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery SA
- PigGas Report 30 – 420 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery SA
- PigGas Report 31 – 520 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery SA
- PigGas Report 32 – 576 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery SA
- PigGas Report 33 – 6,880 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter multisite piggery WA
- PigGas Report 34 – 5,990 pig grow-out unit conventional piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 35 – 2,200 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery, NSW
- PigGas Report 36 – 350 sow farrow to finish multisite conventional and deep litter piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 37 – 1,675 sow farrow to finish multisite conventional piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 38 – 460 sow farrow to finish multisite conventional and deep litter piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 39 – 675 sow farrow to weaner conventional piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 40 – 1,800 sow breeder only conventional piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 41 – 2,000 sow breeder only conventional piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 42 – 2,160 pig wean to finish conventional and deep litter grow-out piggery Qld
- PigGas Report 43 – 44 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery WA
- PigGas Report 44 – 1,250 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery SA
- PigGas Report 45 – 1,840 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery SA
- PigGas Report 46 – 524 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery SA
- PigGas Report 47 – 600 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery Vic
- PigGas Report 48 – 2,200 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery Vic
- PigGas Report 49 – 525 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery Vic
- PigGas Report 50 – 500 sow farrow to grower conventional and deep litter piggery Vic
- PigGas Report 51 – 350 sow breeder only conventional and deep litter piggery WA
- PigGas Report 52 – 285 sow farrow to pork conventional piggery NSW
- PigGas Report 53 – 180 sow farrow to finish conventional piggery NSW
- PigGas Report 54 – 1288 sow farrow to finish conventional and deep litter piggery NSW
- PigGas Report 55 – 1,145 sow farrow to finish multisite conventional and deep litter piggery NSW