Low Cost High Fibre Ingredients Lower Feed Costs and Environmental Foot Prints

Research conducted by the University of Saskatchewan shows pork producers can reduce their environmental footprints while lowering their feed costs by incorporating low cost high fibre ingredients into their rations. Researchers with the University of Saskatchewan are examining the carbon footprint left when feeding low cost high fibre feed ingredients to pigs, specifically wheat mill run and culled peas.

 

Dr. Denise Beaulieu, an Assistant Professor Monogastric Nutrition with the College of Agriculture and Bioresources, says, by considering greenhouse gas output when choosing feed ingredients, pork producers can reduce their environmental footprints while lowering their feed costs.

 

 

So far, we've got preliminary data and after we put all of this into a computer model it does look like either using a by-product, for example in the wheat mill run, most of the carbon input for that feed production can be offset because they're producing flour for humans.

 

So we're kind of spreading out that carbon over different uses. Whether we're using the wheat mill run or if we use the peas, where we can put into the model the agronomic benefits and the decreased requirements for nitrogen fertilizer, we can show an overall decrease in greenhouse gas output or the global warming potential of pork production by using either these by-products or by incorporating peas into the ration.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.