Big Dutchman equips house for 600 sows in Northern Poland
Published:April 26, 2007
Source :Big Dutchman GmbH
Recently in Poland there has been more and more talk about the need for further specialisation of farms. In the case of pig farming this means differentiating clearly between piglet rearing and piglet finishing.
This kind of production method has been practised successfully in other countries for some time already, but even here in Poland it is gaining more and more favourable support. It is now possible to find many piglets on the market which stem from new farms with a high standard of hygiene.
A good example of this kind of production since 10 years already is the Szudrowicz farm in Tłukawy/Ryczywół in the North of Poland. Until now they had less than 200 sows and were selling 4000-4500 piglets per year. Last year Elżbieta and Leszek Szudrowicz decided to build a new pig house and are now able to sell up to 13 thousand piglets.
Leszek Szudrowicz informed himself about the different products offered on the market, including at the Polagra Farm 2005 exhibition in Poznań, Poland and very soon had a very good perception of what his new pig house should look like. Before he decided to hand over the project to the company Big Dutchman, he had a look at some existing farms equipped by this company. He was convinced not only by the practical solutions offered by Big Dutchman but also the high quality of the products offered, guaranteeing durability and excellent functionality.
The new pig house, situated approx. 500m from the village, was constructed within a few months. Its location, as well as the fact that no animals were kept here before, convinced the farmers to decide on a high standard breed for the 580 sows and 4 boars. A weekly production cycle is practised with 21 technological groups of 24 sows each.The remaining animals make up the reserve. The piglets are weaned at 28 days and sold after about 6-weeks, weighing 20-25 kg, depending on customer demands. A special sow management area is also in the same building. In the old buildings the Szudrowiczs produced 23 piglets per sow per year. They are sure that they will be able to increase this production by one and maybe even two piglets per sow per year.
Proud of their investment, the Szudrowiczs decided to have an inauguration of the new building to present the solutions they invested in. The more than 200 guests which came to the “Open Farmhouse Day” were mostly from Northern Poland and mostly planning a reconstruction or a new construction of their farms.
