FARM VISIT ▶▶▶
Welfare, environment key in innovative barn
A modular barn with many welfare aspects – that, in short, is the concept of “Het Familievarken” (The Family Pig). Built on the premises of pig farmer Ivo Bekkers, in Venhorst, the Netherlands, the barn has a special feature: pig toilets.
BY ANNE-MARIE VAN DER LINDE, SENIOR REPORTER, BOERDERIJ A PROFILE
Name: Ivo Bekkers, age 37. Location: Venhorst, the Netherlands. Farm: The Bekkers farm is mainly a finisher farm, having 4,000 finisher pigs at two locations. The Familievarken initiative is a closed 48-sow farm section behind one of these locations. In that closed section, Bekkers achieves 15 piglets born/sow and 12.8 weaned piglets/sow. The Familievarken finishers achieve growth of 950g/day. In total, 5 ppm ammonia emission is measured.
bove the finisher pen, the feed mount starts to move, and the pigs search the ground for chunks. Ivo Bekkers says, “In the beginning, the sows fol- lowed the mount through the barn. They have fig-
ured out now that enough falls down in the 20 minutes the system is moving, so they are much calmer.”
“The Familievarken” innovation barn was built in 2019 be- hind Bekkers’ finisher barns. Innovators Tjacko Sijpkens and Frank Wind are the driving forces behind the initiative that searches for a different style of housing. They have cooper- ated with Wageningen University & Research, Hypor, Cop- pens Diervoeders, as well as construction companies and equipment manufacturers. The barn looks like an oversized yurt (nomad tent, ed.), with plenty of extra room for the pigs. Building costs, however, are not much higher than those for a traditional barn. Wind says, “There is no pit underneath the barn. The toilets dis- pose of the day’s manure immediately. The modular super- structure is cheap. The aim is to require the usual invest- ment per animal place, the same as in a traditional barn. We have definitely come close.” For the next phase in the quest for the ideal barn, Familie- varken is looking for other farms that would like to keep a selection of their pigs this way. Wind explains, “Our aim is 50 to 60 farms over the course of ten years, depending on their size, of course. The barn is modular, which means that there would be ten adjacent units for a farm that keeps 480 sows.” In Dutch politics, recently there has been a little storm as one politician called for the downsizing of the country’s pig production volume by 50% for environmental reasons. Wind responds by saying, “The Netherlands is in the absolute top of pig countries worldwide. That makes us proud. So, we do not wish to halve, but rather innovate further and earn a fair price.”
Natural behaviour first In the barn, animal welfare and natural needs are both well thought out. The pigs have twice as much room than is le- gally required. Weaned piglets have even more room as they remain in the farrowing pens after weaning, until they are ready for slaughter. The barn is divided into two rings. Dry and gestating sows are housed in the inner pens. The outer pens are reserved for farrowing. At first, the pens used to be covered in a layer of black sand, but that sand did not drain as much liquid as necessary. Now there is a layer of dryer drainage sand in the pens. The dry and gestating sows are housed in one group with nipple drinkers and manure pit in the middle. Despite the available space, a number of animals huddle together. At the other side, the largest sow in the group forcefully chases
24 ▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 36, No. 10, 2020
PHOTOS: HENK RISWICK
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