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The first of January 2013 is a key date for Europe’s pig breeders. This is when the new EU regulations relating to housing pregnant sows become law. As is well known after this date sows can only be kept in stalls for the first 30 days of pregnancy, after which they must be loose housed.
Its generally recognised that only 20-25% of Italian producers have switched to loose housing – in fact the industry requested a derogation last year given the parlous state of most Italian pig businesses, but ‘Brussels’ will not be moved given that this change in housing had been flagged up for many years, together with the fact that many Northern European countries are well on the way to converting their sow barns.One forward looking Italian pig business is that run by the Cerri family, based near Buronzo, which is roughly halfway between Milan and Turin.
After 28 days of pregnancy, the dry sows are moved out of their stalls (see photo 1) and mixed into groups of 12-16, depending on their size (see photo 2). The feeding system is very novel – sows have access to an ad libitum feeder with the ration being diluted with a filler – see feed delivery pictured in photo 3. This means that the sows can satisfy their appetite and feel content, yet not take in excessive nutrients.
This solution towards the group housing systems could well be specific for the Italian pig industry – for various reasons, one of the most obvious being that traditionally, Italian pigs have been wet fed (whey from cheese) by means of troughs. At the recent Suinicola pig fair, several other group sow management systems were on show, but many require a certain level of technological knowledge, e.g. Electronic Sow Feeding (ESF). Free access stalls, one of the other options displayed at the show in Reggio Emilia, have the benefit of being easier to manage, but ideally they require new buildings, for which there may not be the financial reserve these days. However, because of very high slaughter weights in Italy (up to 180 kg), finishing pens are quite large and could house dry sows and certainly gilts. The downside would be that the farm would loose finishing space but that is not an insurmountable problem to overcome.
Pig unit
The Cerri pig unit contains 1,000 sows, with genetics being supplied by JSR Genetics, the East Yorkshire, UK-based breeding company. In total 110 GP females are bred pure to produce 800 females annually which are then crossed to produce F1 females.To keep genetically up to date 120 Genepacker Large White GPs plus several elite Landrace boars are trucked in from Yorkshire every two years.
In addition, batches of Geneconverter 750 terminal sire semen are flown in weekly from the UK to Milan airport.
Rice, milk, cheese
As well as the pig unit, the Cerri family grows rice plus have a substantial dairy plant producing a variety of milk products and various cheeses. The business also has a shop selling dairy produce plus salamis, ham and other pork products naturally sourced from Cerri pigs.
Despite being of mature years, owner Pino Cerri starts work every day at 4 am overseeing the milk deliveries. It’s ironic that whilst pig producers are losing money dairy famers are receiving €0.41/litre for their milk. “Hard cheese is in big demand and so dairies can afford to pay a good price to dairy farmers for their milk. Although because of the recession, supermarkets are ruthless regarding their buying policies and we as milk sellers have to compete with cheap milk being shipped in from Poland, Germany and France,” comments Cerri. He continues, “It’s a similar picture in the pig industry. The Parma ham trade is suffering with consumers shunning expensive Italian prosciutto and buying cheaper ham imported from Denmark and Spain.” Cerri also says that younger Italians are not eating enough meat, which is no good for the pig industry.
“My female staff all eat meat-free, healthy vegetarian foods. But what about acid rain and all the dissolved minerals in the rainwater and its effect on healthy vegetables?”, he wonders.Returning to the pig business: The unit doesn’t have any finisher buildings – pigs (see photo 4) are sold to other farms for finishing – in this case to Sicily.Biosecurity is very important. Any new breeding stock imports are kept in strict quarantine away from the unit for a period of one month. The unit has its own large truck and when pigs are ready for shipment to Sicily they are loaded first on to Cerri’s truck and then transferred to a haulier’s truck away from the pig farm. To many, this may seem an extra cautious approach but it has paid off as far as the Cerris are concerned. “We use a broker find farmers that will give us the best price for our pigs.”The Sicilians used to buy pigs from the Netherlands and Denmark but had health problems with them and now prefer pigs from the Cerri unit as they are much healthier. He says, “Our breeding gilts have also found favour in Sicily as well.”
The unit has its own feed plant although currently all the feeds are bought in – however home mixing will be the preferred option again in the near future.
Unit manager
Alessia Fortina has just taken over as the unit manager and she described how the unit operates. Post-weaning Multisystemic Wasting Syndrome (PMWS) has not been a problem; nevertheless a PCV2 vaccination is given at weaning. Lactating sows are fed twice a day and weaning takes place at 28 days, with 40 sows being weaned each week.
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The 1,000 sow Cerri breeding facility is located near Buronzo, in the North of Italy.
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A novel feature is that music is played in the farrowing houses, so that the sows are used to noise and are not upset and lie on the piglets when staff enter the maternity unit. Vaccinations are also given for parvovirus and Aujeszky’s Disease. Weaners are housed in flat decks for six weeks prior to shipping out. The unit doesn’t have a biogas plant, with the slurry being used as fertiliser on the arable farmland.Cerri has seen many highs and lows over his time in the pig industry and is philosophical about the current slump in the pig industry, plus one crumb of comfort is that he doesn’t have to worry about spending money on new sow housing to meet the 2013 deadline.
Source: Pig Progress 27.5
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