Dr Stephen Mansbridge of Harper Adams University is a key player in a team committed to the challenge of ensuring that by 2030 its School of Sustainable Food and Farming will provide access for farmers and food producers to innovations that will help them achieve their own Net Zero goals. Pig Guide recognises the need for the UK pig industry to embrace new sustainability needs and opportunities and has asked how Harper is guiding its students in the appropriate direction and preparing them for vast changes.

Recently Harper Adams University received an accolade for being The Specialist University of the Year. What is unique about Harper?
As a specialist university, Harper Adams is recognised as having a genuine and ongoing reputation, nationally and internationally, for teaching in our subject area of food production and technology, animal health and wellbeing, and their contribution to sustainable, living environments for our planet's inhabitants. Our unique history, including the original bequeath from Thomas Harper Adams to establish a school of agriculture, is still very much in focus even as technology and society advances. However, while the Harper Adams of today continues to provide teaching excellence, we concurrently produce high quality internationally published research and knowledge exchange to support the whole sector. To me it is the engagement of all stakeholders with Harper Adams that makes us such a unique community of industry, staff and students all working together to achieve sustainability in food production, farming and the allied industries. To support these activities, we have a fully commercial farrow-to-finish pig unit as part of our Future Farm right in the middle of the campus, allowing us to demonstrate innovation and practice in a real-world setting.

When and why was the decision made to refresh the agricultural curriculum at Harper?
We review and revise our curriculum frequently to ensure it is fit for purpose and current and that graduates leaving us, after typically four years of study, are relevant to industry requirements. Harper Forward is the latest iteration of our undergraduate curriculum with several courses trailblazing in the autumn 2023-24 and all other courses, including agriculture, launching in the autumn of 2024.

Do you have a personal message about sustainability priorities for the UK pig industry?
Sustainability is generally considered to be the balance of three focus areas.
Pig production needs to be economically viable, so achieving key performance indicators of productivity while controlling expenditure, is important, though other factors including market forces will also play into profitability. Preventing exotic diseases entering the UK such as African Swine Fever, which has affected much of Asia and Europe in recent years, and tackling endemic diseases already in the UK herd are both vital. However, we also need responsible use of medicines to maintain high health status and ensure these veterinary products are available long- term for the industry.

Producing pigs is an integrated part of our environment but comes with challenges to ensure we are farming in a responsible and environmentally sensitive way. Net zero carbon is talked about widely but is far from the only metric when we are considering the second pillar of sustainability and the environment. Alternative protein sources to replace imported soya, especially soya connected to land use change, are currently high priority in the package of environmental risk mitigation measures. On the third focus area of sustainability, ethical production, UK farmers already produce to some of the highest standards in the world. However, addressing societal concerns on topics including animal welfare perceptions and environmental pollution potentials, particularly through education and transparency, are important in maintaining a trusted pig production industry.

At Harper, in autumn 2024 a BSc(Hons) course is scheduled to start in Environmental Management and Sustainability. What does this course involve? What impact are graduates from this course likely to have in making pig production more sustainable and where will they be employed?
Harper Forward is our newly refreshed curriculum and courses for autumn 2023 and 2024 entry. As part of Harper Forward, the new BSc (Hons) in Environmental Management and Sustainability is part of the Environment, Sustainability & Wildlife Degrees. Currently pending accreditation by the Institute of Environmental Management, this course is designed for those wanting to enter environmental consultancy, advisors specialising in sustainable business management and environmental land management, and professionals working in renewable energy, sustainable food production and catchment management.
Sustainable pig production requires partnership working with an alliance of all stakeholders in the chain. Graduates from the new Environmental Management and Sustainability course are therefore ideally placed to work in partnership with pig producers to devise and implement environmental safeguards and mitigation strategy for the future.

What contribution is Harper already making towards enhanced sustainability in the UK pig industry?
Harper Adams has been teaching and researching pig production for many decades. In that time, we have helped the industry on a range of projects contributing to sustainable practices and trained generations of pig producers and those working in the allied industries. Recently, research projects have included a focus on managing the hyper-prolific sow and large litter sizes by better understanding supplementary milk and creep feed provision for piglets. We have also aided the feed industry in developing and using phytase enzyme products to reduce global reliance on non-renewable quarried phosphorus, and we are currently working on dietary modifications that may be needed to optimise diets for pigs bedded on straw. The School of Sustainable Food and Farming provides a new platform for our knowledge exchange activities and is enabling a collaborative approach to the challenges identified by the sector as a priority for sustainability.

Any thoughts on the demands for increased biological circularity and do you envisage major changes in cropping programmes because of reduced availability of cereals and the need to feed pigs differently?
Biological circularity is fundamental to having a circular economy, so by adopting an integrated farm management approach, producers can help drive sustainability. The pig sector is already doing well at using co-products that cannot be used in human food. Other options are being explored such as processed animal proteins and the use of insects to convert vegetable waste into animal feed.

Compared to other countries, is the UK pig industry giving sustainability sufficient priority?
The UK is notably behind other countries and the European Union in legislating for the use of these processed animal proteins but when authorised, this may allow us to feed pigs differently and get closer to a circular economy and sustainability.