Boars on the Way in cooperation with Pig Progress hosted a webinar on the environmental impact of keeping entire boars. The webinar was broadcast on Thursday, February 23, and can be reviewed in its entirety through www.pigprogress.net. In this webinar, Gé Backus explains the background of the study on the carbon footprint of entire male pigs. In addition, Mathieu Pecqueur explains on behalf of French agricultural cooperative Cooperl how they are dealing with the matter of castration and also well-known pig producer Annechien ten Have-Mellema from the Netherlands is sharing her experiences with raising boars.
The impact of ending castration of entire male pigs in Europe is explained in a two minutes YouTube animation. Ending piglet castration is better for the animal, saves money for the farmers and results in a lower carbon footprint.
Online surveys were performed with 11,294 consumers from ten EU and four non-EU countries. Four consumer segments were identified: Demanding, Average, Low-on eco, and Indifferent. It is concluded that consumer consumption motives and production preferences are sufficiently similar to include them as communicative elements in marketing strategies for meat from non-castrated pigs.