Archive Article: 2001/02/09
Dennis Bridgeford
Dennis Bridgeford farms
50ha (125 acres) at Petley
Farm in Easter Ross, north
of Inverness. The farm
comprises a 480-sow
indoor unit producing 95kg
pigs for one outlet and 85kg
pigs for a local abattoir. A
further 320 sows are run
outdoors. Land not used for
pigs grows spring barley
THREE continuous weeks of hard frost started the year, which helped to dry the ground and get rid of all the mud.
But frozen pipes were the downside. The outdoor unit is well organised for frost with the use of a converted slurry tanker with the delivery pipe lowered by hydraulics to make it a one-man operation.
Unfortunately, we also started to get problems with underground pipes in the indoor unit. In the end the answer was to run surface pipes until the temperature rose; its all hassle. By the end of January, the weather improved dramatically to spring-like conditions; the next problem was repairing the bursts.
The drawback of bore-hole water is the iron content. We get a high level of red sediment in the pipes, when this freezes it sets like concrete then lands in the nipple drinkers and header tanks, choking them. The only consolation is that mains water would cost me £10,000 a year, whereas with bore-hole water the only cost is that of running the pump.
The high cost of soya bean meal is starting to show its effects on diet costs. This, along with the price of pigs dropping, is making life hard. Let us hope that the downward spiral is short-lived.
The announcement that more retailers are requiring pig products fed on non-GM soya is going to cause yet more heartache.
We have been doing trial work on the use of soya. Diets on the wet feeder have always used reground soya to prevent separation in the pipeline, but when pigs reached 30kg and moved on to ad-lib dry feeders, we have used soya as delivered. We now grind soya for the next stage diets, up to pigs of 45kg. The difference has been quite dramatic, with intake, growth rates and food conversion improved.
The more I hear about all the health problems the pig industry is experiencing in England, the more concerned I am getting. The ravages of the pig wasting disease do not appear to have hit the north, yet. The breeding companies attitude would appear to be "Its only a matter of time". Maybe it is time to rebuild Hadrians Wall. *
Dennis Bridgeford believes that rebuilding Hadrians Wall may be the only way to keep pig wasting diseases from making their way to the north.