Ammonia emissions from pigs are reduced by up to 90% through the use of an air washer at the Duroc d’Olives family farm in Kruisem, Belgium, which has increased its sustainability and animal welfare standards to enter a new niche market.
The share of consumers looking for more sustainable pork produced at a higher animal welfare standard is increasing.
This is according to the owner of the breeding facility, Filip Van Laere who describes his farm as somewhere in the middle between regular and organic.
Air washer
The air in the stables, housing 1,800 sows in total, is purified via a biological air purification system based on micro organisms. Six air washers on the farm “wash” the ammonia as well as odour out of the air.
The ammonia dissolves in rainwater collected on the farm and nitrogen compounds are removed from the system with the drain water, which is then used as a fertiliser on the 50ha farm.
The average concentration of 1t of drain water contains seven units of nitrogen. On an annual basis an amount of 150-200t becomes available and is shared with neighbouring farms, he said.
Van Laere is not worried about stricter environmental regulations coming from the EU. He believes that farmers will be forced to adopt more sustainable approaches or they risk losing their permission to keep pigs.
An air washer with a capacity of 60,000m3/h requires an investment of around €60,000, he said, while adding that other systems are coming up for pig farmers to reduce ammonia and methane emissions.
Duroc d’Olives
Pigs at cage-free Duroc d’Olives are weaned at five weeks before they are transferred to a second location. At 30kg the pigs are taken to fattening units across Belgium and are slaughtered at six months and 135kg.
Every week 700 pigs leave the farm in Kruisem. The pork products are sold under the Duroc d’Olives brand to 400 butchers in Belgium, the Netherlands, and France.
“Products are not sold to retailers, only butchers. I don’t have contracts, I just say this is my price, take it or leave it,” Van Laere said.
“Duroc” refers to the pig breed, meat quality, and taste, while “Olives” refers to the fact that in the finishing barns the pigs are fed with an extract of olive oil in addition to raw grains, fibres and proteins.
At €2.40/kg carcass weight in Germany and €2.25/kg in Belgium the market price for the pigs is quite high at the moment, Van Laere, who gets 80kg of meat per pig, said.
Breeding facility
In the insemination room sows are in groups of four to seven. Up to 90 sows are inseminated every week. Van Laere explained that a white hardy sow is crossed with a brown-red Duroc boar.
However, under the Duroc d’Olives Rouge label meat is sourced 100% from pure Duroc pigs. He added that the cross breed gives 14-15 live piglets.
A gestation stable with feeding stations is shared by 80-85 pigs. Each sow is chipped and fed according to its body fat and the stage of gestation, he added.
In total 450 sows are in farrowing pens, with 75 sows farrowing each week. Piglet losses, he said, went up by 3-4% due to the no-cage system. To avoid piglet crushing, the calmest sows are used to produce the future breeding stock.
Animal health and sustainability
The air coming into the stables is actively filtered by Hepa 10 virus filters. “Because this is a breeding unit, I want as little disease as possible,” Van Laere, who uses 70% less vaccines than on other farms, said.
All stables are heated by heat exchangers inside the air washers. In the winter months, the incoming cold air can be heated up with the warm exiting air, he said. There are also 2,000 solar panels on the farm.
The farm also comprises 40,87ha of arable land in total, including for corn, winter wheat, barley, grassland, and potatoes. Pig manure and slurry is used on his land and neighbouring land.