Profitability plunges as supply prices continue climbing

Dec 19, 2022

From new vaccine mandates for truck drivers crossing the Canada-U.S. border, to rail cars and cargo ships delayed by the B.C. flood recovery, to COVID-19 labour shortages, supply chain challenges in the agri-food sector have dominated news headlines in recent months. Combined with increasing inflation, cost of production for Alberta’s hog farmers is sharply on the rise.

“The past year has presented quite a few disruptions at every stage of the value chain,” said Bijon Brown, Production Economist, Alberta Pork. “Feed represents the greatest proportion of farm costs, and the price of other on-farm requirements can also have a harmful impact on producers’ businesses.”

Most recently, the price of certain pharmaceuticals has shocked producers who rely on these medicines to improve the health of their pigs.

“When we placed our last order to fill a certain prescription, the bill was nearly 50 per cent higher than when we ordered it just a while back, amounting to a few hundred dollars extra,” said Steven Waldner, who manages a medium-sized farrow-to-finish operation southeast of Lethbridge. “We have also noticed other products doubling in price by weight.”

In addition to feed and pharmaceuticals, other inputs have also become noticeably more expensive. By now, the world has been living with COVID-19 for nearly two years, and many wrinkles related to the pandemic have since been ironed out. Besides obstacles like worker absenteeism in meat processing plants or fewer goods moving across the international border, are other factors behind cost increases?

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Video: Swine Industry Advances: Biodigesters Lower Emissions and Increase Profits

Analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG emissions) in the Canadian swine sector found that CH4 emissions from manure were the largest contributor to the overall emissions, followed by emissions from energy use and crop production.

This innovative project, "Improving Swine Manure-Digestate Management Practices Towards Carbon Neutrality With Net Zero Emission Concepts," from Dr. Rajinikanth Rajagopal, under Swine Cluster 4, seeks to develop strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

While the management of manure can be very demanding and expensive for swine operations, it can also be viewed as an opportunity for GHG mitigation, as manure storage is an emission source built and managed by swine producers. Moreover, the majority of CH4 emissions from manure occur during a short period of time in the summer, which can potentially be mitigated with targeted intervention.

In tandem with understanding baseline emissions, Dr. Rajagopal's work focuses on evaluating emission mitigation options. Manure additives have the potential of reducing manure methane emissions. Additives can be deployed relatively quickly, enabling near-term emission reductions while biodigesters are being built. Furthermore, additives can be a long-term solution at farms where biogas is not feasible (e.g., when it’s too far from a central digester). Similarly, after biodigestion, additives can also be used to further reduce emissions from storage to minimize the carbon intensity of the bioenergy.