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Farm-Scape, Episode 2181

Swine producers in Canada and the United States and taking steps to deepen the integration of their two industries in an effort to better coordinate and capitalize on research and communications activities being undertaken in the two countries.

Earlier this month, as part of an ongoing initiative to strengthen relations between the Canadian and US pork industries, a delegation of Canadian producers traveled to Des Moines, Iowa to meet with representatives of the National Pork Board's environment committee and discuss current research initiatives and potential opportunities to cooperate.

Canadian Pork Council environmental programs coordinator Cedric MacLeod notes, while there are issues of specific interest to producers on each side of the border, the two industries share similar interests in everything from nutrient, odor and emissions management to animal welfare.

"The interests of the two pork producer communities on each side of the border are a little different. For example, we've had some focus on the greenhouse gas issue in Canada with Canada's ratification of Kyoto.

That hasn't happened in the US but they're very much involved in the movement of odors and particulate matter and ammonia emissions so there's an opportunity where we can trade back and forth on our research findings. In terms of cooperative research, we're going to be looking at things like nutrient management, animal welfare. They've made good strides in barn ventilation, in barn design.

Those are some of the things that we'll be capitalizing upon as well. Our industries are so very similar, the research that's happening, there's going to be duplication so we're going to put the research on the table and see where we can get some joint funding as opposed to both funding the same kind of projects."

MacLeod maintains this type of ongoing grassroots interaction among Canadian and US pork producers is extremely valuable.

He suggests increased dialogue and cooperation offers a great opportunity for the two industries to make the funding that producers allocate to research and communications go a lot further.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.