Westphalia forges family farms of the future

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The growth point in the European swine production features new sow herds of 800 and more. But there's still plenty of room for the smaller family farm, as this example from Germany shows

by NORMAN DUNN

The 200-sow, farrow-to-finish unit run by the Hüppes near Hörstel in German Westphalia really deserves the name "family farm."

All the sow work – AI, farrowing, weaning, feeding and high-pressure washing – is carried out by farmer Franz-Joseph Hüppe on his own. And, after weaning and growing-on to 20-25 kilograms, most of the Hüppe pigs are driven straight across the farmyard into the 1,500-place feeding barn run by daughter Sabine. She works alone, too, with the planned output of 120-kilogram pigs topping 5,000 per year.

"Sure, my wife Inge and I take a holiday now and again," admits Hüppe. "But I've got two other daughters working in town. They're happy to get back to the farm and take over the chores for a few days."

And the field work? There are 104 acres of wheat, barley and maize grown around the hog barns, and strangers have nothing to do with that either. Daughter Sabine's husband Henrik Bäumer, who runs a farm contracting business, takes care of all fieldwork.

Solo management of the sows (Topigs 20 x Pi Pietrain terminal sire) hasn't spoiled the production picture. Return to heat after first insemination is just 4.8 per cent with an average 2.42 litters per year and 31.7 liveborn piglets per sow/year. Strategy is batch farrowing with weaning at four weeks.

Maybe the only black spot just now is fairly high losses during suckling. "These run at 19 per cent currently, but we still manage an annual weaned per sow average of 26," explains Hüppe.

"Most piglet deaths are caused by laying, I would say. But I cannot fault the sows otherwise. They are exceptionally quiet, good-tempered mothers. Maybe birth weights are too low (1.2- 1.3 kilograms) and this means the piglets are a bit weak to begin with."

This farmer looks on the bright side, though. "Average litter losses in this region during suckling are around 13-14 per cent. I look on the five per cent gap as an achievable target for future improvement."

But weaning to slaughter losses on this farm are only 1.2 per cent. Feeding is in an almost new fully-slatted barn with dry feed system using homegrown wheat and barley.

From 25 to 120 kilogram liveweight takes an average 126 days. Daily liveweight gain is 790 grams and feed conversion ratio is 1:2.89. The pigs go to a local slaughterhouse and average slaughterweight is 95.4 kilograms.

Franz-Josef Hüppe is also chairman of the regional pig production advisory organization "Erzeugerring Westfalen" (Westphalia Hog Producer Ring), which collects and analyzes performance information from over 200 sow units specializing in weaner production and some 600 feeding enterprises. The region is the second most intensive pig production area in Germany with around six million head in its barns at any time.

The average Westphalia Ring piglet production unit last year ran to 191 sows with 2.34 farrowings per sow and a total of 24.3 weaned piglets. Mortality of suckling piglets was 14.5 per cent although, taken from birth to 30 kilograms liveweight, this reached 17.3 per cent. Based on an average selling price equivalent to C$3.01 per kilogram piglet liveweight, the average Westphalia Ring sow earned $1,836 in the year. Feed per sow was costed at $405 and margin per sow after all variable costs was $857 in 2008/09 – incidentally, one of the best years for some time with a margin exactly 25 per cent higher than the 10-year average.

Unsurprisingly, the Westphalia Ring advisers see reduction of piglet mortality as one of their most crucial tasks. In its annual report for 2009, the organization calls for better farrowing management. Members of the ring that plan for staff attendance at as many farrowings as possible Members of the ring, who plan for staff attendance at as many farrowings as possible, achieved a 0.9 per cent higher piglet survival rate than those with no particular policy in this respect, says the report.

The 600 pig-feeding enterprises in the Westphalia Ring achieved a mean daily liveweight gain from 29-121 kilograms liveweight of 752 grams at a feed conversion ratio of 1:2.89. Gross margin per pig sold in the 2008/09 financial year was $30.42.

Mash gives best pork results – at a price!

Feed-on-demand from mash automatics consistently gives the best results for hog producers in the Lower Saxony swine advisory group (Erzeugerring). In the 2008-09 financial year, 411 hog feeding units had their physical performance figures matched with the feeding system and daily liveweight gain (dlwg) for the 223 farms using mash automatics averaged 769 grams.

The next best system in this respect proved to be liquid feed in troughs with sensor control, and 28 farms using this approach averaged 751 grams. This was followed by the systems with regular fixed feeding times: conventional liquid feeding (61 farms averaging 741 grams) and dry feeding with 25 farms and 647 grams dlwg.

Mash automatic systems also gave the best feed conversion with 1:2.92. Dry feeding came in last here, too, with 1:3.27. Mortality was also lowest for the mash automatics at 2.73 per cent.

But the components in liquid feeds tend to be cheaper in Europe and this meant that these systems still managed to produce hogs cheaper by the equivalent of up to C$0.04 per kilogram of weight gain.

Benchmarking brings better grades in Northern Ireland
Benchmarking in hog production has been welcomed by more than 90 per cent of swine farmers in Northern Ireland. For production alone, the province's Department of Agriculture reckons benchmarking has been the motor behind an increase in pig meat per sow per year of 140 kilograms in the last four years. Under the government-supported online system, all aspects of production involving 13,000 sows are compared – from housing and breeding, to rations fed, through to herd management and feeding systems.

Eight years after the scheme was introduced, the average carcass meat sold per sow in 2007/08 had soared by 88 kilograms to 1,630 kilograms. Last year, the number had increased to 1,672 and three producers had topped two tonnes of meat per sow for the first time.

In the last three years, piglets weaned per sow has increased by 1.4 to 21.2 while the top 25 per cent of producers in Northern Ireland averaged 24.1 weaned last year.

Encouraged by this success, the government has gone on to support online benchmarking based on carcass results. Just like the on-farm benchmarking, the so-called PiGIS program (Pig Grading Information Scheme) is free to producers and involves the four processors in the province uploading all carcass results for their suppliers into a central databank. From there, farmers can check out their results against the rest and adjust rations and health programs.

PiGIS (now on its third year) has proved even more popular than the original pig production benchmarking scheme and 91 per cent of all slaughter hogs delivered now come from scheme participants. Trends almost immediately recognizable after the first year of carcass benchmarking include leaner carcasses and better grades leading to more profitable enterprises.

Ventilation and clean pens the answer to tail biting?
In one of the biggest national surveys into hog tail biting so far, over 500 Dutch swine producers answered questions from University of Wageningen researchers with half the respondents reporting problems in this respect. Thirty-three of the units were organically managed with almost one half of those reported as being affected by tail biting. The maximum number of pigs affected in any single herd was around 20 per cent but most reported very small pockets of tail biting affecting from one to five per cent of their hogs.

Almost unanimously chosen as the main causes for this problem in the Netherlands were poor ventilation and too high temperatures in the barns. And this was followed closely by high stocking density in pens and then by the general health status of the animals (those obviously sick were prime targets for tail biting). Most of the farmers found that playthings in the pen, or simply some straw, helped reduce the problem.

Whether the hogs were entire, castrates or gilts were rated as relatively unimportant as factors in the 500-farmer survey. The feeding systems did not appear to influence tail biting and smaller hogs or runts in the pens did not seem to be targets – as long as they remained healthy.

Meanwhile, the advisory and policy-forming organisation for the sector in the United Kingdom, the British Pig Executive (BPEX), has completed a three-year survey on the subject and, like the Dutch, found that tail biting was not widespread. Out of 172 visits by inspectors to 65 farms over the period, no tail biting was detected on 35 units. In 2007, an average 3.96 per cent of pigs on affected farms showed signs of tail biting.

As well as simply inspecting the pigs, the inspectors surveyed farmers on their methods of preventing tail biting and gave advice as well. Among the factors associated with higher than average tail biting on the afflicted farms were:

•    Drafts in laying areas of pens
•    Variations in tail lengths (e.g. a mix of docked and undocked hogs)
•    Fouled playthings in the pens
•    Dirty water bowls.

Putting straw into pens, whether as bedding or just as a plaything, was associated more than any other action with less tail biting. Where hogs had been vaccinated against PCV2, lower levels of tail biting were also reported. BP