ONE DOSE CAN STOP CIRCOVIRUS IN ITS TRACKS Fostera(TM) PCV Reg. nr: G3813 (Act 36 of 1947) Pfizer Laboratories (Pty) Ltd. (Reg. No.: 1954/000781/07), P. O. Box 783720, Sandton, 2146, South Africa. www.pfizeranimalhealth.co.za MF/03/FOST/2012/07/19/STOP/ADD
Visit to Ireland – an impressing fact fi nding mission Phillip von Memerty of No 2 Piggeries and Klaus Oster of ADDCON Africa recently visited Ireland to look at Irish pig production, including feeding of liquid, whey to fi nishers. Phillip and Klaus were hosted by Devenish Nutrition, whose products ADDCON are agents for in South Africa. Irish pig farming: A background Ireland is politically divided, but on a combined basis, has a land area of 84 421 km². The total island population of 6.4 million people. The total sow herd is about 190 000 sows, and Ireland exports about 50% of its total production, principally to the EU. Pigmeat intake is relatively high at 32.5kg per head (making pigmeat the most consumed meat in the country). By EU standards, the pig farm size is large, at close to 700 sows for commercial farms. The vast majority of farms are fully integrated, and most pig farmers are pig farmers only, with limited acreage or outside agricultural interest. 40% of all pigs are from home mix farms, another 20 to 25% are fed via contract feeding agreements, with the rest purchasing feed in the traditional manner. A high percentage of farms are wet feed, refl ecting the previous availability of liquid by-products, and a general belief in wet feeding. Most wet fed farms have moved in the last fi ve to ten years to “probe feeding”, where fresh feed is delivered via pipeline on a more or less continuous basis. Pig feed in Ireland is wheat and barley based, refl ecting Ireland’s northerly latitude, with soya meal and 00 rape as the primary protein sources. Maize will be fed as a partial or total replacement for wheat if the price is right. (In fact in 2008, when the feed price was extremely high, North American sorghum was used extensively, instead of wheat). Pig performance and cost Irish pig performance nationally is reasonably strong, 12.33 born alive, 24.1 pigs sold per sow per year, at an average live weight of 102.8kg. Average herd FCR is 3.74 on a deadweight basis (excluding sow cull sales). The top 25% fi gures are a little better, at 12.46 born alive, 26.8 sold, 105.8kg live weight, and an FCR of 3.56 deadweight (excluding sow culls). Production costs are high at the moment, with wheat at €260/t, barley €245/t, maize at €280/t, and soya meal at €550/tonne. This all adds to a feed cost (if fully on the market) of close to €1.40, with a pig price of about €1.80. Forty cents per kg over feed will not cover costs, but farmers are Porcus October/November 2012 hopeful that lower European numbers (as a result of sow welfare legislative changes, and high feed prices) will increase margin over feed and fi nally deliver profi t. Until then, the attitude is to keep sticking to the best practice - concentrate on numbers and feed conversions. Labour costs are high, with a minimum wage of approximately €8.50 per hour. Consequently, labour units are low on farm, all milling and feeding is fully automated, leaving well-paid staff to concentrate on pig production. Despite the labour cost, 2011 labour and management cost was about €0.13/kg deadweight. Background disease levels tend to be higher than in South Africa, as units are generally in closer proximity to their neighbours, and the climate in Ireland makes effective ventilation more challenging. However, disease is generally well controlled by effective use of modern vaccination programmes. Visit itinerary Day 1: Visit to Killinaleck farms, Co Cavan Cavan is one of three epicentres of pig production on the island. Killinaleck farm is a fully integrated 500 sow unit, which is a part of a larger privately owned group. The farm is managed very well by Keith Brown. The farm is wet fed, apart from fi rst week/ ten days post weaning. Feed is contract manufactured according to Devenish nutrition specifi cations. Farm performance is in excess of the top 25% fi gures as discussed above. The farm does well sourcing whey, and feeding whey at a high level to fi nishers. Whey used is mostly “de-proteinated whey”, which as the name suggests, contains very little apart from lactose, salt and ash. Nevertheless at close to 20% inclusion on a dry matter basis, the farm consistently achieves over 1kg/day ADG from 40kg to slaughter. Meeting with Wexford pig producers Following this farm visit in the Irish midlands, we travelled south east to County Wexford, to meet Joe Healy. Wexford pig producers farm about 1 500 sows on a number of sites in the South East. Again, it is wet fed units, with a high percentage inclusion of food co-products, including whey, beer yeast and pot ale syrup. All diets are home mixed. Again, performance exceeds the top 25% as above. Day 2: Visit to Phillip McCrae, Co Tyrone PROMOtION ARtICLe Philip von Memerty, Dr Eilir Jones (DEVENISH Nutrition), Klaus Oster (ADDCON Africa) and Aidan O’Toole (DEVENISH Nutrition). On day 2 we went northwards, visiting the farm of Phillip McCrae in Co Tyrone. Again, this farm is located in a very densely populated pig region with 20 000 sows, and a slaughter plant processing 25 000 pigs per week, within a 15 mile radius of the operation. McCrae’s farm is a home-mix operation, utilising very high levels of whey (+ 20% whey on a DM basis). Growth in both weaners and fi nishers is extremely strong, at well over 800 gms from eight weeks of age to slaughter. Again all dietary work on the growers is by Devenish Nutrition. Visit to Devenish Nutrition, Belfast From McCrae’s we travelled the hour or so to Devenish Nutrition’s European manufacturing base on the Belfast docks. Devenish are an independent nutritional company with manufacturing facilities in Belfast, Ireland, Minnesota, USA, and Iowa, USA. From a small beginning in 1997, the company have expanded rapidly, increasing sales by a factor of 15 to 2012. The Belfast operation produces over 1 000 tonnes per week of premixes, piglet creeps and speciality products. All were impressed with the scale and attention to detail through the plant, and the technical discussion which followed with Dr Marion Scott, Aidan O’Toole and Dr Eilir Jones of Devenish. From Belfast, we travelled southwards to Dublin airport, and eventually to sunny South Africa. Devenish and ADDCON ADDCON and Devenish co-operate in South Africa. A number of the speciality products fed to the farms referenced above are registered for use in South Africa, namely ResQ, Matan, Natupro, DeviGuard, Lipidol and Farrowlife. If further details are required on any of these products, please contact Johann at 082 780 5240 or johann@tega. co.za To conclude, Irish pig farming is innovative, resilient under tough trading conditions, optimistic and challenging — a little like pig farming everywhere. Attention to detail is everything. Good advice and quality feed is all important. We are looking forward to welcoming Dr Eilir Jones and Aidan O’Toole here on our home soil in a few weeks. 23
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