Hog production uses a lot of water

[Oscar]

Hog production uses a lot of water

[ https://www.producer.com/opinion/letter ... y-22-2024/ ]

February 22, 2024

The groundwater that supplies farms, homes, industries and cities is being depleted across the world, and in many places faster than in the past 40 years, according to a new study.

Manitoba had its own brush with low water supply in 2021. Drought conditions impacted availability for spraying, livestock, irrigation and human consumption.

The situation being faced by many Manitobans poses the following question: “How will this affect the gargantuan hog industry in Manitoba and its huge demands of water consumption?”

As a matter of fact, water usage estimates in swine production were introduced at the hearings by the Manitoba Clean Environment Commission of 2007. Also, a 2001 study by DGH Engineering broke down the estimated water use by type of operation and function at 89.5 litres per sow per day.

As an example, take the number of Manitoba sows (currently 378,000), multiply by 89.5 ( to get the number of litres per day) and multiply that by 365 to get a rough estimate of the volume of water used per year.

The water usage figures for hogs are astounding — daily 33,831,000 litres x 365 = 12,348,315,000 litres yearly.

It’s enough to fill 4,940 Olympic size swimming pools — each pool holds approximately 2,500,000 litres of water.

Manitoba’s Sustainable Development Act was in place from 1997 through to 2018. With the proper wording of “shall” in place, rather than “should,” the act would have been an extremely helpful source of legislation in regulating the uncontrolled expansion of the hog Industry, appropriate care of the environment, addressing human health issues and the social effects of any proposals.

John Fefchak,
Virden, MB