PHOTO: HENK RISWICK
PHOTO: HENK RISWICK
FARM VISIT ▶▶▶
Manure surplus solved by selling it
French swine farmer Bernard Rouxel joined the initiative of French pig cooperative Cooperl to start with a new plan to valorise manure in an innovative manner. The cooperative intercepts and separates manure right at the source and processes it all centrally in a new factory.
A Profile
Bernard Rouxel, age 52, owns a closed 600 sow farrow-to-finish facility in Plénée-Jugon, Britanny, France. Annually he produces 15,000 weaner pigs. These piglets will be finished on three loca- tions, an existing pig house with a 2,000 pig capacity, another on a different location with a capacity for 1,400 finishers and a third, new pig house for 2,160 finishers having manure separation on-site. Mr Rouxel is vice-president of the board at the French pig cooperative Cooperl Arc Atlantique, head- quartered in Lamballe.
BY KEES VAN DOOREN, REPORTER, BOERDERIJ
t first glance, the new finisher house design of Bernard Rouxel appears to be similar to any other pig house in Brittany, France. The facility comes with a wide central aisle with on both sides fully slatted pens. In addition,
the pig house has a low ceiling construction, plastic pen walls and concrete walls between the compartments. There’s a lot of light for the pigs through the side windows, in the central aisle the
light comes in through the roof. Mr Rouxel says that is all done on purpose as he likes working in plenty of daylight. The most interesting about this facility can be found under- neath the floor. Using cutting edge manure pit design, a con- struction called ‘Trac’ technology was built where urine and the manures thick fraction are immediately separated and stored in different places. In addition – also happening subter- raneous – fresh air is constantly being sent into the compart- ments using air channels, while pungent air is actively being extracted from the pits. In short, manure removal and air ven- tilation are parts of the same, integrated pig house design. The pig house was designed by French pig cooperation Coop- erl Arc Atlantique, where Mr Rouxel happens to be vice presi- dent of the board. The choice for this design has mainly been driven by the fact that he believes in the concept of separated interception of the pigs’ urine and solid manure. Mr Rouxel would like to sell the manure. He explains, “For the solid ma- nure, I can obtain € 20 per tonne from now on. For the next 12 years, I have a purchasing agreement with Cooperl. After on-site biological treatment of urine, 30 ha of arable land is sufficient for the application of the thin fraction of the 2,160 finishers populating this pig house.”
Gravity and movement In order to separately intercept both solid and liquid manure, the system makes clever use of gravity and manure slides. About 50 cm underneath the slatted floors, there are prefab concrete elements in a V shape. These have a slope of 8%, al- lowing the urine to be diverted into a central channel. In turn, the channel has a slope of 1%, in the direction of the sides of the building. That is where the urine from all compartments on that side of the building flow together and are jointly di- rected towards a central storage location. To make sure that the concrete does not absorb the urine, a special concrete mixture is used. The solid manure, however, will stay put on the prefab floor. Manure slides will pull these to an area underneath the cen- tral corridor, where the solid manure from all six compart- ments will be collected. Another manure slide will pull all sol- id manure outside. Once outside, it is stored under cover having 27-28% dry matter. This larger slide operates five times per day – it doesn’t operate during the night to allow the pigs to get through the night undisturbed. As indicated, ventilation is also taking place underground, in a
20 ▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 35, No. 6, 2019
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