Development of Life Cycle Inventory Data for U.S. Swine Production Scenarios

The swine production datasets are the product of ongoing work by the University of Arkansas Center for Agricultural and Rural Sustainability, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the National Pork Board. The data documentation in this metadata record describes the project background and nomenclature, in addition to a description of the dataset structure, individual unit processes, and production scenarios. Flow-level metadata descriptions for selected unit processes within the U.S. swine dataset can be found in the Appendix section. The goal of this work was to provide pork producers and consumers with objective, science-based information on the environmental performance of various pork production practices in the United States. The scope of this work was a cradle-to-farm gate assessment with emphasis on the different management strategies used in the live swine housing and production phases. The system boundaries encompassed the extraction of raw material and feed production through the live swine production facility processes to the farm gate (see Figure 1). The reference flow for the system is one market pig at the farm gate. The market weight of the pig is assumed to be 275 pounds. It should be noted that it is not appropriate for the user to assume different market weights when using this dataset. Pork production scenarios developed for Iowa, Indiana, and North Carolina represent 86% of production in the U.S.