LAUSR

Consumer (‘prosumer’) concerns over animal welfare and the environmental footprint of pork production dominate the media. Indeed, the discussion of alternatives to pork, both from the continued global growth in chicken consumption and advances in cellular meat production and vegetable protein alternatives, represent real threats to pork’s future. Producers and processors continue to focus genetic improvement, nutrition, and management to improve meat production efficiency. Disease mitigation and animal health limit our ability to reach the pigs genetic potential, either in terms of pigs processed per sow, or breaching the 2:1 lifetime feed conversion. Can farmers continue to gain more pigs per sow, while keeping them healthy and alive? How do we maximize meat yield per carcass without losing flavor and the consumer experience? Are there limits to how low we can go in the conversion of nutrients into feed? Despite increased consumer demands and the continued need to improve production efficiency, the management of pigs has changed little in the last decades, often relying on decades old innovations and enhanced biosecurity. Innovations such as vertical hog farms in China, muti site production, and new feed technologies offer incremental but not disruptive improvements. The 10 digital technologies (PWC) is a useful framework to review the technologies with the potential to transform swine production. These are 3D Printing, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, Robotics, Drones, Blockchain, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (‘Metaverse’). Concepts such as precision nutrition, precision management recognize the need for better data, and data underpins advances such as nutrigenomics, microbiota and the environment of the pig. Digital technologies can disrupt pork production while offering the opportunity to respond to consumers, legislators, producer demands and other actors within the pork production chain.