Sustainability is a hot topic in world news today, driven by concerns of climate change. The Global Sustainability Study 2021 conducted by Simon-Kucher & Partners shows that, in the last several years, sustainability has become increasingly important to consumers worldwide—they want to know the products they use and the food they eat are created in a sustainable manner and don’t require excess natural resources, like water. And bacon, regardless of how great it tastes, isn’t exempt from this concern.
That’s why one of the focuses of our recent research study with Pipestone Applied Research (PAR) was comparing the water usage, or disappearance, between wet/dry feeders and dry feeders.
Previous research, including one of our own studies (Wastell, 2002) and one by Kansas State University (Rantanen, et.al, 1994), found that wet/dry feeders had 35.6% and 38.3% less water disappearance than dry feeders. However, this research is 20+ years old. Additionally, we want to update performance data on water disappearance since introducing our Adaptive-Flow™ drinker nipple technology in 2018.
More about Crystal Springs Hog Equipment.
New Findings
Our Adaptive-Flow™ feeder drinker nipples were engineered to minimize waste by ensuring the correct flow of water is always present at the feeder, regardless of the variable water pressure within the barn.
We were therefore very pleased when the new research results showed water disappearance rates were even better on our new feeders at a whopping 53.4%
That means our wet/dry feeders use less than half as much water as dry feeders with supplemental watering without negatively affecting the pig’s health and growth performance.
This new data is important because it proves that basic equipment like feeders can be engineered to improve sustainability by reducing overall water use in pork production. This consideration for improved sustainability goes even further if you include the resources required to manage manure with high water content—whether the manure is directly used to fertilize a corn field in Iowa or has to first go through a sophisticated “lagoon” process (as it does in many regions of the world) to minimize any negative impact on the environment.
Conclusion
Being good stewards of our natural resources is in our DNA as farmers—from our roots in the Crystal Spring Hutterite colony in Ste. Agathe, Manitoba, Canada. For us, sustainability isn’t a corporate buzzword used to market our products. It is part of who we are, driving us to ask hard questions, challenge our thinking, and innovate better products for the sake of our planet and for pig farmers throughout the world.
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