Pork Checkoff Launches Carbon Footprint Calculator Software Tool

June 20, 2011 — 

The Pork Checkoff announces the release of a new software tool for pork producers - the Live Swine Carbon Footprint Calculator. Developed with the technical expertise of the University of Arkansas' Applied Sustainability Center, the user-friendly application allows producers to input their on-farm data from the sow or grow-finish side of production to compute the carbon footprint of an entire barn of pigs from breeding to market.

Roy Henry, a pork producer from Longford, Kan., and member of the National Pork Board, said, "America's pork producers are among the most environmentally and socially responsible food producers in the world. The unveiling of the new carbon footprint calculator demonstrates this fact once again."

Henry explained that the calculator will create a benchmark of a barn's carbon footprint that producers can then use to help make production decisions to improve efficiencies and achieve a lower overall footprint. "This tool truly offers us an innovation that can help guide our management practices," Henry said.

National Pork Board President, Everett Forkner, a producer from Richards, Mo., sees the new tool as a breakthrough. "It's a great day for everyone on and off the farm when we can bring a new tool such as this to U.S. producers," Forkner said. "It reflects producers' ongoing dedication to invest in new tools that help improve upon their long history of protecting the environment."

Randy Spronk, a producer from Edgerton, Minn., who serves on the Checkoff's environmental committee, was one of the first to test the carbon footprint calculator. He was impressed by its ease of use and straightforward output. "With your production data available to enter into the calculator, it only takes a few minutes to determine your barn's carbon footprint and to visually see what the biggest contributors to it are," Spronk said. "From there, you can begin thinking how you might make changes to increase on-farm efficiencies and reduce your baseline footprint."

Spronk said the tool clearly shows how inputs, such as feed, energy use, manure and pig performance, are all related to the carbon footprint of a barn. "It's an eye-opener to see how this all interrelates," Spronk said. "It drives home how we, as producers from operations of all sizes, can continue to take additional steps to be environmentally, socially and economically sustainable."

Pork producers can order a free copy of the Live Swine Carbon Footprint Calculator at http://www.pork.org/sustainability or by calling (800) 456-7675.

Source: National Pork Board News Release