Efficiency is taken to a whole new level at Bettapork. The 20,000 head piggery lies a stone’s throw from the central Queensland town of Biloela and is a far cry from its original established almost 60 years ago.
“We built a brand new piggery because the old one has been there since the 1950s, when my grandfather built it,” explained co-owner Laurie Brosnan.
The new premises, made up of a series of large, enclosed, climate-controlled buildings powered by the farm’s biogas plant, is based on Danish technology where nothing is wasted.
“We are not getting much more percentage-wise for pigs than we did 15 years ago, so we have to get more efficient,”Mr Brosnan said.
With just 12 boars and 2000 breeding sows, the farm operates on 100 per cent artificial insemination, which is carried out twice a week with a 90 pc conception rate.
Each week, there are two farrowing episodes resulting in 800 piglets, with an average of 12 piglets per sow.
“We have a geneticist from a large breeding company that we pay a consultancy fee to. He looks at our family trees, tell us which could be the best to cross and we then select after that,” Mr Brosnan said.
While breeding selection is based on estimated breeding values, which the pig industry has been using for 35 years, the Brosnans also select on confirmation.
“We are always improving because each generation is better than the last.”
Pigs also helped, too, Mr Brosnan said, as every four months there would be another litter of piglets.
Bettapork is based on three-site production - breeding, weaning and finnishing - and the buildings are physically designed for each section.
The breeding section is an open enclosure designed so the sows are three metres away from any obstacle, enabling a flight rather than fight response.
“We have static groups of 60 so they remain together for nearly forever. This way, they work out their pecking order form the word go and there is no fighting,” Mr Brosnan said.
The sows, which are happily roaming or sleeping, have separate sleep and pooing areas, and 100pc of Bettapork's pigs are now out of sow stalls.
Feeding is computer controlled through the sow’s RFID ear tag, and each mother is fed 2.5 kilograms of grain mix, grown and milled on the family farm, each day.
“So she can choose to eat it all in one go, or she can space it out during the day,” Mr Brosnan said.
In a separate section, sows give birth within in days of each other, thanks to the artificial insemination program.
For the first four days, the mother has a special bar that prevents her from rolling on her babies, but after this she can move freely.
In a sheltered corner, hot water pipes warm a pad that piglets curl up on to keep warm - otherwise they also clamber on top of their mother.
At four days of age, male piglets are castrated and their tails docked, the latter to avoid infection as pigs bite a passing tail.
By castrating male pigs it also means fewer injuries because there is no aggressive behaviour and better eating quality as there is no boar taint.
Piglets are weaned at 26 days old, when they are at 7.5 kg., and from 10 weeks of age, males and females are separated and fed differently.
“Because the males are castrated, they have the potential to get fatter, but we can keep male and female backfat low through feeding to its genetic potential rather than to market,” Mr Brosnan said.