Confinement vs. pasture: An economic and environmental comparison of swine production systems.

摘要

his thesis compared the economic performance and the environmental factor of field nutrient overloading between an intensive swine farrow to finish confinement operation and an intensive swine farrow to finish pasture operation in Southern Illinois. At first, because of the increasing trend of large swine confinement units, one might believe that a swine pasture facility cannot compare favorably to the intensive indoor facility. However, a comparison of costs constructed from actual performance data revealed that the pasture and confinement systems around 100 sows both had a break even price of about