Reducing freshwater use in pork production - the case of Ireland

Summary

Freshwater is becoming scarce and the agricultural sector is facing challenges to reduce its impact on water resources. Pork production uses freshwater for a range of processes starting from feed production to meat processing. Therefore, I aimed to identify farming strategies to reduce freshwater use from on- and off-farm processes by using Ireland as a case study. Detailed farm data was collected for each pig production stage to assess the freshwater use on farm and identify the factors affecting water use. The use of alternative pig diets based on local feed ingredients, or by-products on freshwater use of pork production was also explored. I furthermore studied how changes in farm management strategies can influence the on-farm water use for cleaning and drinking, and their links with pig welfare and behaviour. In conclusion, from this thesis we can see that a collaborative framework of integrative solutions including changes in diets, on-farm management practices and policies is required to reduce freshwater use and make pork production more sustainable.