Photo Report: Vietnamese farms & feed mill

Recently, Pig Progress travelled to Vietnam to witness the country’s massive growth. Two local pig farmers told their story. In addition, a visit was paid to the new De Heus compound feed factory. Read more on the farm of Mr Ngo Duy Dung Tri in the latest edition of Pig Progress.

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Both farms are in Dong Nai province, about two hours drive east from Ho Chi Minh City, in Southern Vietnam. The first farm, as the sign shows, also has a function of being a dealer for De Heus feeds in Vietnam.
First stop was at the farm of Mrs Nguyen Thi Xuan Anh, 50, who has 100 sows and 500 finishing pigs.
Mrs Nguyen has been in swine farming for quite some years – before that she only used to grow and collect rambutan fruits. She has four naturally ventilated swine barns – one for gestation, one for lactation and weaner pigs, and two for finisher pigs.
Average litter size of Mrs Nguyen is about 10-11 piglets. She sells the pigs at approximately 100 kg to either tradesmen or the processing company Vissan.
As sire line, Mrs Nguyen uses ‘PiDu’, a crossbreed of Piétrain and Duroc. As a dam line, she uses Yorkshire x Landrace sows.
On the journey goes, to the second farm, of Mr Ngo Duy Dung Tri, also a distributor for De Heus feed products. All pigs on the farm get this company’s compound feed.
His farm is located in the middle of an orchard where cashew nuts are being grown.
The cashew nut fruits are yellow or orange – the nuts are hanging right below them.
Bags with pig manure waiting underneath the trees for transport to neighbouring farms.
Special feature in this farm are water basins for the pigs to keep cool. Average temperature all year long is 28ºC (82.4ºF), with in the afternoon the temperature being a lot higher.
The pigs clearly enjoy the basins and can be found in them a lot.
An outside water tank ensures the water supply for the farm’s two finisher barns. The water is pumped up from a well.
In total, this farm has three barns, one of them combining gestation, lactation and weaner pigs.
Manure of the sows has to be scraped manually into the slatted aisle floor.
Average litter size is 10-11 piglets, with 2 litters per sow per year. Mr Ngo vaccinates both his sows and his piglets to Foot-and-Mouth Disease and Classical Swine Fever. The sows also get vaccinated for parvovirus and Aujeszky’s Disease.
Piglets also get vaccinated for PCV2, M. hyo and P. multocida.
Last stop on the journey is a visit to the brand new De Heus feed plant, also in Dong Nai province. It is the company’s fourth plant after having entered the Vietnamese market in 2008.
The plant, opened in the middle of last year, can produce up to 300,000 tonnes of feed per year.
Main production is for the pig business, but the plant’s three lines also produce compound feed for cattle, ducks and broilers.
The plant is fully equipped with the latest material. De Heus feels strongly about being more than just a feed manufacturer and also aims to help producers with advice and knowledge.