FW Awards 2011: Pig Farmer of the Year finalist – Stuart Bosworth
Stuart Bosworth
Spains Hall, Willingale, Essex
It’s hard to imagine Stuart Bosworth in a giant, pink, fluffy pig costume outside Downing Street, but this modest individual felt compelled to wear it to support the “Pigs are still worth it” London Rally in March. Stuart will go outside his comfort zone to support what he believes in – an innovative and intensive, but sustainable British pig industry.
It’s why he writes a regular editorial column in Pig World, hosts and supports vets and students from Cambridge University, a Danish Agricultural College and Writtle College a few miles away.
That enthusiasm and commitment to everything he does is probably the reason the three school leavers who joined him 25, 15 and 11 years ago at Spains Hall in Willingale, near Ongar – to help run the 270-sow indoor pig unit – are still with him. All three gained NVQ level 2 training while working for him, attend pig training events and receive a production bonus.
Investment in his staff has clearly paid off because Stuart’s stockmen achieve outstanding results. The herd is PMWS-, PDNS- and PRRS-free by maintaining a closed herd breeding programme and strict bio-security with weekly all in/all out cleaning and disinfecting of the farrowing rooms.
He has sold more than 25 pigs per sow per year in each of the last four years, using detailed records to optimise performance. One example, is the link he found between gilt age and condition at service and numbers born alive in first litter and longevity. Based on his own research, he now targets gilt age at service at 250-260 days – knowledge that he has shared with BPEX and local pig discussion groups.
Stuart describes his pig business as a “work in progress” and is continually seeking new ways to improve production efficiencies, such as the new weaner rescue decks, which he introduced with BPEX grant support. This allows him to take the bigger piglets, once they have fed on colostrum, on to the deck where they move onto solids much more quickly, while leaving the smaller ones to “catch up” on the sow.
“I believe the concept of ‘artificial rearing’ piglets has the potential to be the most significant advance in pig breeding herd performance since the advent of earlier weaning,” he says.
Following a study trip to The Netherlands, Stuart sourced Damline A1 from a high health Topigs breeding stud in there to further improve the home-bred female line. The results so far speak for themselves; 100% conception rate and 13.64 pigs born alive per litter from 28 farrowings.
Pigs have been produced at Spains Hall since 1934 without de-stocking and re-populating. He closed the herd in 2001 following a lucky escape from swine fever and remains free from the diseases that continue to erode production efficiency across the pig industry. Salmonella levels in finished pig carcasses are below 10% compared with the national average of 40%.
“We load pigs early Monday morning each week, using a lorry that has been cleaned, disinfected and rested over the weekend. The lorry does not enter the pig unit; the driver uses our boots and overalls and we disinfect wheels before and after loading,” he explains.
The vet is also not allowed on to the unit unless he is two days pig free – the very first question Stuart put to the judges on our arrival before he allowed us to walk on to the immaculate-looking pig unit. Two years ago, visiting Essex trading standards officers were so impressed by Stuart’s hygiene strategy that they invited him to give a presentation on best practice to other trading standards officials.
The pig unit works very effectively within a 270ha arable operation, which is managed by his cousin. There is a contra-deal for muck and slurry in return for straw, but home-grown grain is bought back at market prices for inclusion in the pig diets. The farm is in an NVZ and has recently invested in new slurry handling and storage with grant support and is also farmed with the ELS.
He bemoans the fact that he has lost money in the past six months, but few producers can boast £140.71p per kg net of production costs – evidence of his business planning, attention to detail and innovative approach.
Farm facts
Spains Hall, Willingale, Essex
270ha arable and pig operations
270-sow pig unit
Three staff + Stuart
6,800 pigs sold a year
What the judges liked
• A professional approach across all facets of his business
• Impressive business model and planning
• Outstanding production results
Shares knowledge with his staff and the industry