Being part of the North-East Pig Monitor Farm Programme has brought huge benefits to Aberdeenshire farmer, Patrick Stephen.
OVER the last four years, Patrick Stephen's pig unit at Mill of Carden, Inverurie, has made significant changes in key areas which have impacted on business profitability and sustainability. Much of the success has come from trialling new practices and technology.
The Pig Monitor Farm Programme was funded equally by Opportunity North East (ONE) and Quality Meat Scotland (QMS). ONE, an initiative funded by industrialist, Sir Ian Wood, aims to help map out an economic future for the north-east of Scotland as North Sea oil production declines.
The aim of the monitor farm project has been to help improve the profitability, productivity and sustainability of pig producers through practical demonstrations, the sharing of best practice and the discussion of up-to-date issues.
Mr Stephen's pig unit, which is about four miles from his main farm at Mains of Conglass, is run by manager, Wayne Ducker, and a staff of four people. They look after a commercial herd of 530 sows housed on straw and based on JSR females crossed with a Danbred terminal sire.
The 364 hectares (900 acres) of cereals grown on the farm plus another 162 ha (400 acres) contract farmed, provide around half of the feed required by the pigs. Protein and minerals are bought in with batches of feed mixed as needed by a mobile mill. Some by-products, mainly brewer's yeast, are fed to finishing pigs. Sows are straw-bedded and fed using electronic sow feeders. Piglets are weaned into nursery units and provided with wet feed.
The finished pigs are sold through Scottish Pig Producers (SPP) to Quality Pork Processors (QPP) at Brechin or Woodhead Brothers. Mr Stephen is currently chairman of Huntly based SPP.
Since the start of the monitor farm project, the Mill of Carden unit has made improvements in most of the key production parameters, resulting in an increase of 20 per cent in pig-meat sold per sow.
Mr Stephen says: "Being a monitor farm has pushed us to improve the business and has helped put it in good stead for the future. We have become more efficient by improving management practices and are regularly investing in new buildings. For example, an environmentally controlled 1800 place weaner shed and a 1600 space grower/finisher shed to improve feed conversion and growth rates.
Before the programme, 600 pigs from Mill of Carden were finished on another site close to the unit. They are now finished in the new grower/finisher shed.
"Finishing all the pigs at Mill of Carden improves biosecurity, reduces bed and breakfast costs, as well as straw and labour costs," says Mr Stephen.
The new building, which is fully slatted with a wet feeding system and equipped with a forced ventilation system, has been designed to cope with an intake of 320 pigs each week from the weaning programme.
Mr Stephen says: "The pigs are performing far better. They are finishing quicker at heavier weights. When we started the programme we were finishing in the low 80kgs deadweight but we are now at 92kgs deadweight. I can easily say building this shed is the best thing I have ever done for my pig enterprise. "We have also invested in a new grain store and straw shed which will improve straw quality as all straw was previously stored outside which, in turn, should reduce the risk of mycotoxin issues in the breeding herd.
"Refurbishment of the electronic sow feeding system and the installation of a new water tank will also improve pig drinking water and improve growth rates.
"The Monitor Farm Programme and the support of the community group has provided the business with advice and support to help make these big decisions and improvements."
Through the Monitor Farm programme, Mr Stephen also wanted to improve on the use of data to make informed management decisions.
Alongside 25 other pig producers in Aberdeenshire, he has been using the Agrosoft pig production software which enables the unit to record and manage every element of herd performance, as well as being able to benchmark against the rest of the Scottish industry.
Mr Stephen says he was also able to weigh pigs far more often and improve his own on-farm monitoring. He adds: "Visual appearance is not everything. I think in the past there was a tendency to blame poor performance on disease, whereas now we can look at other causes. For example, when we moved to wet feeding for the younger pigs we could see they were not doing as well as they should have been.
"It turned out the computer was spending too much time feeding the bigger finishing pigs and smaller ones were not being fed often enough."
Allan Ward, Pig Specialist with QMS, says: "The sharing of best practice with fellow farmers at the monitor farm meetings helps Scottish pig production businesses to be efficient and sustainable.
"Mr Stephen's farm is a great example of a pig business which was performing well before it started the programme, but there was recognition that there was scope for further improvement. By making these changes, Mr Stephen has delivered significant gains."
