The National Centre for Livestock and the Environment provides facilities and equipment for research into issues such as odour, water quality, greenhouse gas emissions and fertilizer use, with the goal of developing environmentally sustainable livestock production practices.

Over the next few months new electronic sow feeding and environmental monitoring equipment will be installed in the centre's two swine barns.

U of M Associate vice-president research Dr. Digvir Jayas says the centre is taking systems based approach where crop and animal production are viewed as an integrated system over the long term.

Dr. Digvir Jayas-University of Manitoba

The centre is focused on developing sustainable animal production systems and asking basically many questions which would provide answers to the hog producers in terms of better housing systems, in terms of more comfortable housing for animals, better management of the manure and incorporation of the manure into the crop production systems.

It is a unique centre which is focused on understanding integrated crop and livestock production systems.

The purpose of the NCLE project itself is to understand the whole life cycle between the crop and animal production systems and the end result of the research from that is to have sustainable animal and crop production systems for the prairie provinces and the results certainly would be transferable to the other parts of Canada and the world but certainly the focus would be on the prairie provinces.

Dr. Jayas says the goal is to provide information that will help the industry develop better and more economic housing and production systems that impact less on the environment.