Formulating diets for growing pigs: economic and environmental considerations

Abstract

We look at the environmental impact of formulating diets for an animal production system, namely the case of growing pigs. The classic approach in animal production is to use a growth model based on the least-cost diet formulation. This optimal diet is generally established by linear programming. Such an approach can lead to adverse environmental effects in the form of nitrogen and phosphorus excretions. Multi-criteria (two and three criteria) models are proposed with the aim of addressing both economic and environmental considerations. We apply the models to two real-life contexts: Québec (Canada) and France, and make some comparisons. We show that important reductions in nitrogen and phosphorus excretions can be achieved at relatively low costs in both contexts.

Animal production for efficient phosphate utilization: from optimized feed to high efficiency livestock

“…Hence, a least-cost diet can be nutritionally adequate and economically optimal, but it may still provide significant amounts of indigestible fractions and excess nutrients [10]. Recent developments in mathematical programming have focused on multi-criteria models with the aim of addressing both economic and environmental considerations [11 ]. Simply increasing P availability in livestock diets does not solve the problem of formulating environment friendly diets owing to conflicting relations of P to other nutrients.…”

“…Simply increasing P availability in livestock diets does not solve the problem of formulating environment friendly diets owing to conflicting relations of P to other nutrients. For example, minimizing P excretion may increase excretion of other pollutants such as nitrogen [11 ]. Hence, the linear programming concept has been applied to diet formulation at herd level by incorporating nutrient disposal costs into a modified least-cost ration formulation model.…”

Modeling the trade-off between diet costs and methane emissions: A goal programming approach

“…For instance, Jean dit Bailleul et al (2001) and Pomar et al (2007) modified the least cost diet algorithm to minimize nitrogen and phosphorus excretion by pigs. Dubeau et al (2011) proposed multicriteria programming models to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus excretion by pigs based on the observation that a trade-off existed between diet cost and environmental impacts of pig production. Moreover, Cabrera (2010) developed a Markovian model to optimize replacement policies and dairy-herd net income for diets and nitrogen excretion.…”

Handbook of Operations Research in Agriculture and the Agri-Food Industry

“…Indeed, phosphorus and nitrogen excretions are significantly increased. The problem should be solved using a multi-criteria model, which optimizes cost and excretions of the diet proposed in (Dubeau et al 2011). information and expectation about the future. At the next decision epoch updated information is available and the decision choice is re-evaluated.…”