Richard Longthorp
Richard Longthorp
Richard Longthorp farms
720ha (1800 acres)
near Howden, East Yorks.
As well as arable, the
farm has 2500 outdoor
breeding sows with progeny
taken through to bacon. He
is also chairman of the
National Pig Association
HAVING decided to restock one of our breeding units and chosen genetics, the next stage was to find a location.
We do not want to be carrying out the restock anywhere near our existing production facilities, or any other for that matter. This will give us the best chance of starting and continuing for a reasonable period of time with a clean herd.
We hope to get the customary honeymoon period experienced with any restock and by the time this is over, wish to be significantly further down the line in our ability to manage porcine multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS).
Thankfully, a location has now been determined. But in the quest for isolation, this is some distance away from base. This will add some cost, which will hopefully be rapidly recouped as the anticipated reduction in cost of production occurs.
The war against PMWS continues and we keep seeing glimmers of hope. Some months ago we vaccinated two herds against porcine reproductive respiratory disease (PRRS) in a bid to stabilise the PRRS status across those two herds. Latest blood samples indicate this has been successful and, coincidental or otherwise, post weaning mortality rates have dropped.
This is not an endorsement of the vaccination programme as a means of controlling PMWS, simply an observation. We have all been down that route too many times in the past. The last time I started to become remotely optimistic about our ability to win the PMWS war, I was given a painful reminder that this conflict will be a prolonged campaign with no quick fixes.
It was somewhat reminiscent of the pressure of a penalty shoot out as we reached the end of our bonus period for slaughter pigs under our new contract. We knew it was going to be close because we had been having difficulties getting the nutrition right on pigs from one of our breeding units. But eventually we scraped home and qualified for the bonus which is related to level delivery, weight range and P2 and which, when we do our job right, can be worth more than £1/pig. *
Richard Longthorp is hopeful that restocking on a new unit will give breathing space to improve PMWS control.