PHOTO: KEES VAN DOOREN
PHOTOS: VINCENT TER BEEK
FARM VISIT ▶▶▶
“ASF isn’t even our biggest problem”
About a decade ago, Bart and Mascha Vennix bought a nice farm site with plenty of opportunities in eastern Germany. The farm layout was great, and the capital Berlin nearby provided an excellent marketplace for pork and permanent demand for pig manure, as the soil in that area can do with some help. Things looked rosy – then along came African Swine Fever in wild boar.
BY KEES VAN DOOREN, SENIOR REPORTER BOERDERIJ, AND VINCENT TER BEEK, EDITOR, PIG PROGRESS
“I Profile
Name: Bart and Mascha Vennix Function: Owners Farm: Bremsdorf farm is a finishing farm with a capacity of 4,800 places. The farm is in the village Schlaubetal in Branden- burg state. It operates under the animal welfare scheme “Initiative Tierwohl”, offering extra space to pigs on the farm. The pigs receive liquid feed, prepared onsite by a Weda kitchen. New pigs get trucked in at about 25 kg and leave at 120 kg.
t’s funny the things you have to think twice about. We had wanted to redecorate our daughters’ bedroom. Then we suddenly found ourselves asking each other: should we go
ahead with it?”
This is just one random anecdote in the life of Bart, age 41, and Mascha Vennix, age 44, owners of swine farm Bremsdorf in the village Schlaubetal, Brandenburg state, Germany. They are originally Dutch and moved to Germany many years ago to work in the swine industry. They started out as managers at a farm site, but about nine years ago, they decided to make the big move and buy a property of their own. Initially, they say, it was a matter of tremendously hard work with long days and a lot of investment. Bit by bit, however, things start- ed to fall into place and their 4,800 finisher pig facility started paying off. That’s when September 2020 came, and African Swine Fever (ASF) was found in wild boar in Brandenburg state, radically changing the picture. Pigs reared in the state suddenly ap- peared suspect even if they were totally healthy and even though no farms were affected until July 2021. The location of the farm was reflected in the prices they were paid. In the months that followed, the farm suffered a loss of € 179,000, shown clearly in the management records.
The good old days First, some basics. Bremsdorf farm breathes history. The robust pig houses were built when East Germany had a com- munist government, in the early 1970s. The farm was called a “Typanlage”, says Vennix. “At the time, 39 of these identical farms were built. I’ve visited some; most of them still exist. They are exactly the same and they definitely knew what they were doing back then. I’ve insured the farm for € 4.5 million. If the whole lot burns down, I want them to reconstruct it exactly as it is now.” In the 1970s the farm had capacity for 7,500 finisher pigs. That has now been reduced to 4,800 or almost 1,000 per pig house, he says. The farm takes part in the German animal wel- fare scheme “Initiative Tierwohl”, which requires farms to have 1.2 m2
per animal.
The farm consists of five parallel finisher barns, made of concrete that has stood the test of time. A striking modern addition is the presence of solar panels on the roofs, gener- ating 1.3 MW. The buildings are 8 m apart from each other and connected through a central sluice. In the layout of the farm, care is given to proper driveways that take into account biosecurity, with separate entrance routes for the pig trucks and the feed trucks. The entire complex is fenced off with 2 m high fences.
18 ▶ PIG PROGRESS | Volume 37, No. 8, 2021
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