It is less than two years since the Danish based FirstFarms Group acquired its four pig production sites in Slovakia. - Here we have particularly high requirements for slurry storage and protection against leaching, says Morten Knudsgaard.
Nearly two years ago, FirstFarms in Slovakia took over a Danish-owned pig production unit with 2,300 sows. “It was operating very well at the time of takeover. But the four sites are located in areas where it is difficult for us to expand on a large scale”, says Morten Knudsgaard, who has the day-to-day responsibility for FirstFarms’ pig production and arable crops in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary. “This is partly due to the presence of other livestock producers in the area and partly due to environmental considerations in western Slovakia”, Knudsgaard adds. The pig units are located directly above one of Europe’s largest drinking water reservoirs. “These places high demands on slurry storage and protection against leaching. However, the production facilities in Slovakia fit well into our overall pig production in the two neighbouring countries.”
Optimization
For this reason, FirstFarms’ strategy in Slovakia is now to optimize the existing production facilities rather than focusing on expansion. “This is something we have, of course, been fully aware of since the acquisition of Gabcikovo, which is the name of the pig production, and which consists of four separate sites”, explains Knudsgaard. FirstFarms operates pig production and arable farming in western Slovakia through FirstFarms Gabčíkovo s.r.o. The company runs four pig farms located around Gabčíkovo and manages approximately 1,750 hectares of farmland, primarily used for feed production. Pig production is based on Danish genetics, and most of the output is supplied to local Slovak slaughterhouses.
In Slovakia, half of the piglets can be finished to slaughter weight, while the other half are transported at 25–27 kg to the Czech Republic to one of FirstFarms’ finisher units there.
The first pig production to become part of the FirstFarms Group in 2017 is located in Hungary and today operates exclusively as piglet production, with piglets sold locally
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Danish genetics
The piglets produced at Gabcikovo are sold internally to FirstFarms’ finisher production in the Czech Republic. “This provides a 50 per cent self-sufficiency in piglets there”, says Morten Knudsgaard. Since the takeover, efficiency in the sow units has been around 33 piglets per sow per year. “However, we are currently working on optimizing production, including through an upgrade of Danish genetics”, the manager at FirstFarms adds. “At present, we import purebred animals from Denmark, which in practice does not involve importing very many animals. From there, subsequent generations are born in Slovakia. In fact, animals are only introduced from Denmark twice a year”, he explains further.
Biosecurity
For Morten Knudsgaard, the past year has mainly been spent on further strengthening biosecurity around the four pig production sites: “Today we have an outer bare-soil zone, then a grey zone, followed by two clothing changes before employees enter the white zone. Likewise, all materials are disinfected, along with a range of other security procedures.”
Fortunately, there have been no outbreaks of ASF at FirstFarms’ sites in the three countries.
Overall, Morten Knudsgaard is very optimistic about pig production in the coming years, both in Slovakia and in the two neighbouring countries.
Story by Effektivt Landbrug