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PIC's Banks Baker on the role of genetics in a more sustainable pork industry

No matter your stance on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions or the role agriculture plays in the issue, one thing is certain. The clock is ticking for all of agriculture to build their own solution because consumers, industry stakeholders, corporations and governments are all lining up to do it for us.

Banks Baker with the Pig Improvement Company (PIC) started his presentation to the delegates at Banff Pork Seminar 2023 with a look at the increasing focus globally on reducing emissions levels, the use of taxes and levies on imports, and the direction retailers are heading when it comes to the sustainability of the products they sell.

"Agriculture is being asked to do a lot - animal health and welfare, antimicrobial stewardship, food affordability, positive climate action," says Baker. For example over 1,400 companies are working with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)- think McDonalds, Target, Cargill, Tyson, Walmart, Maple Leaf Foods, JBS - to set their own corporate goals and targets. Now SBTi companies represent over a third of global market capitalization, worth $38 trillion USD.

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Sheep Farming Life | Difficulties & Fun Discoveries!

Video: Sheep Farming Life | Difficulties & Fun Discoveries!

Sheep farming life includes difficulties and, in today's episode at Ewetopia Farms, it also includes some fun discoveries and interactions with our young lambs and adult rams. Lambing season is almost done on our sheep farm in Ontario, Canada, but today, we had two more ewes deliver lambs. The Suffolk ewe was rejecting her lamb due to mis-mothering with the Dorset ewe who had lambs at the same time. The Dorset ewe gave birth to twins, with one being extremely small. See how we approach these two problems in the hopes of getting one mother to bond and the other not to mistakenly harm her lamb. We also make a discovery when looking at our two favorite Suffolk lambs, which was a surprising coincidence! Then we catch up with some of our more popular Suffolk and Dorset rams.