Photo report: Udomdach Farm - Thailand

Udomdach Farm, in Ratchaburi province, Thailand, has been existing for over 30 years. At the moment, the owners' son Udomdach Theerasatayakul is managing the facility. His property was one of the first commercially successful pig facilities having a biogas installation in Thailand, as Pig Progress found out in December 2008.

Read more on Udomdach Farm in Pig Progress 25.01 or click here to see the pdf

Photo

The first impression of Udomdach Farm, in Ratchaburi province, Thailand, is that of a colourful picture, with green palm trees, yellow feed silos and a vast blue sky
Udomdach Farm houses about 35,000 finishers in over 60 houses
The piglets are obtained from five surrounding farms, when they are about 17-21 kg. The pigs will stay until they have reached about 110-120 kg. After slaughter and processing, meat is sold to superstore Tesco Lotus
Feed silos are refilled by a feed truck driving round at the facility
Pig slurry is being caught and transported to several covered slurry lagoons on-site
The total amount is stored in three covered lagoons of 10,000 m2, 4,000 m2 and 6,300 m2
Under cover, the solid slurry is being processed through natural processes until a gas comes into existence of about 63-66% methane
Altogether, the lagoons can store 1,200 m3 of slurry a day. There are plans to increase this to 2,000 m3 a day, by buying slurry from farmers in the neighbourhood
The generator house is occupied by two biogas transformators, generating 450 kWatt and 800 kWatt respectively, both manufactured by Guascor (Spain)
A third transformator will be added through 2009, adding another 800 kWatt. The energy is sold to the Provincial Electric Authority
Covers under the pig house roofs help direct the ventilated air reach the pigs quicker
Disinfection on a large scale – vans have to drive through disinfection pools