Pig producers must adopt arable precision farming techniques

Precision farming techniques used by arable farmers to accurately control inputs in relation to costs, yields and returns will have to be adopted by pig producers on a global basis to help them remain competitive, believes Hugh Crabtree, managing director of Farmex.

"The poultry sector has shown the way, but it must now be done by pig industries if pigmeat is to challenge poultry consumption in many western cultures," he says.

Farmex, a specialist high-tech control equipment and data processing company based in Reading, Berkshire, has been called in by Australian Pork Ltd - that country's pig industry body - to

help with the development of integrated management systems, the basis of precision farming for pigs.

Farmex says it has found that by looking more closely at the production process, using temperature, feed and water monitoring farmers can identify opportunities to improve the productivity, health and welfare of pigs.

"For example, monitoring has helped us better understand the relationship between heater activation, minimum ventilation rate setting and room temperature variation. On one UK farm this has resulted in an 85 per cent reduction in heater use in nursery rooms, worth 66p per pig - equivalent to 15,000 per year in a 1,000 sow enterprise," he said.