Patoa Farms Ltd
The Sternes and the Ravns were experienced pig farmers who moved from central Canterbury to Hawarden eight years ago, believing that pig farming is best carried out on large farms in remote locations. They purchased flat terraced country with poor soils on the south bank of the Hurunui River, about 11kms from Hawarden and 15kms from Waikari, where most their farm labour comes from. Steve and Jens had known each other since childhood and were independently looking to get bigger properties. They decided to join forces at Patoa.
In 1998 the two couples bought 416ha, and last year added another 118ha. They run 3300 sows, and finish the progeny to bacon. About 65,000 pigs are slaughtered annually from the farm. Jens says free-range pig farming is best practiced on free draining sites where there is no mud in winter. It is a system that minimises adverse environmental effects and animal health issues.
Keeping sows outdoors has many advantages including animal welfare. Provided you have correct stocking rates and the land is spelled periodically it is sustainable on light ground. Another important feature of their operation is the use of a straw-based finishing system. This produces usable compost at the end of the operation, and the pigs love living on straw. The used straw is windrowed and then sold as compost.
Patoa employs 40 people from the nearby towns, which now dont have an unemployment problem. Wages paid is near $2 million annually, which provides considerable earning power for the district.
Patoa won the Gallagher Innovation Award in the 2006 Canterbury Farm Environment Awards for innovation in its approach to staffing matters in a large-scale rural business, for the healthy straw-based farrowing hut environment and the conversion to the auto-sort finishing system, also run on straw.
Patoa Farms is the biggest single-site piggery in New Zealand. It has 3300 sows. 700 are either land race or large white purebred sows. The commercial sow herd consists of 2600 cross bred sows. Patoa breeds its own replacement sows, using AI on the purebreds with semen supplied by Waratah farms of Otorohanga.
The annual production of finished pigs is 65,000, which is an average weekly slaughter of 1250, 90% at Alliance Sockburn. Bacon pigs leaving the farm are typically 90-100kg live weight.
Patoa has over 1100 farrowing huts, which are moved around over the 300ha of pasture. A sow produces an average of 2.2 litters per year, with an average litter size of 11 piglets, of which 9-9.5 survives to weaning. Sows have about six litters before being culled and replaced. The well-regarded Verkerks small goods company in Christchurch is a market for the cull sows.
Some of the risks to piglets are weather-related. Prolonged wet weather means restrawing the huts so the piglets can keep warm and dry. Prolonged hot, still weather means the sows spend all their time in wallows and become careless of their piglets.
Patoa aims to wean similar numbers of pigs 52 weeks of the year. Summer infertility in sows and boars is a problem. In the commercial herd gilts are served with a boar, but aged sows undergo AI.
After weaning at four weeks of age the piglets enter a two-stage finishing system. Stage one is the nursery area, 40 buildings containing 200 pigs each. Pigs remain here for about 5 weeks. Stage two is either a grower building (63 available at 100 per building) or a large barn holding 600 pigs. The large barns incorporate auto sort technology from the US.
By the end of the finishing period pigs are gaining weight at 1kg/day. All feed is purchased from two feed mills, one in Christchurch and one in Rangiora. All sow huts and indoor pens are carpeted with straw. Patoa has a contractor who sources and carts straw from mid Canterbury. Pigs are backloaded on the straw truck to Sockburn.
Dry sows are fed on the ground once a day using tractors with fed bins attached to the 3 point linkage. Sows are hand fed immediately before and after farrowing. 5-7 days after farrowing lactating sows are fed adlib through self feeders holding 500kg of sow nuts.
Jens and Steve were impressed with a new cost-effective finishing system in the United States which runs groups of up to 1000 pigs on slatted floor pens, with feeding and lying areas separated by a weigh scale. The weigh scale is called Fast II made by Farmweld and is an advanced automatic sorting and management system. Super-sized pens are divided into loafing and feeding courts. Pigs learn to walk through the Fast II weigh scale to get to the feeding courts, and they can be diverted in either of two ways on entry. It its most advanced use, the Fast II could be used to split feeding pigs according to their nutritional needs, light pigs getting a higher spec ration than the heavy pigs. The system produces daily records on the pen, consisting of the average weight of pigs, the lightest and heaviest, and the numbers in each 2kg LW band. Because Patoa is aiming at optimum finishing weights of 95-105kg, the Fast II system can be used to know when that goal has been achieved, and for drafting the pigs which meet the criteria on despatch day. If we sell tighter weight ranges, we can improve our returns, said Jens. The operator can set the required despatch number on the final day, and the Fast II will draft the heaviest pigs to achieve that head count.
The challenge at Patoa is to incorporate the Fast II technology with a straw-based system. Feed courts are raised (up 300mm) to prevent the straw and manure getting into the weigh scale. A vacuum truck is used to help keep the feed courts clean. 13 out of 30 large barns are in operation. Internal fit out of the other barns is ongoing and 1 barn becomes available for use per week.
In 1998 the two couples bought 416ha, and last year added another 118ha. They run 3300 sows, and finish the progeny to bacon. About 65,000 pigs are slaughtered annually from the farm. Jens says free-range pig farming is best practiced on free draining sites where there is no mud in winter. It is a system that minimises adverse environmental effects and animal health issues.
Keeping sows outdoors has many advantages including animal welfare. Provided you have correct stocking rates and the land is spelled periodically it is sustainable on light ground. Another important feature of their operation is the use of a straw-based finishing system. This produces usable compost at the end of the operation, and the pigs love living on straw. The used straw is windrowed and then sold as compost.
Patoa employs 40 people from the nearby towns, which now dont have an unemployment problem. Wages paid is near $2 million annually, which provides considerable earning power for the district.
Patoa won the Gallagher Innovation Award in the 2006 Canterbury Farm Environment Awards for innovation in its approach to staffing matters in a large-scale rural business, for the healthy straw-based farrowing hut environment and the conversion to the auto-sort finishing system, also run on straw.
Patoa Farms is the biggest single-site piggery in New Zealand. It has 3300 sows. 700 are either land race or large white purebred sows. The commercial sow herd consists of 2600 cross bred sows. Patoa breeds its own replacement sows, using AI on the purebreds with semen supplied by Waratah farms of Otorohanga.
The annual production of finished pigs is 65,000, which is an average weekly slaughter of 1250, 90% at Alliance Sockburn. Bacon pigs leaving the farm are typically 90-100kg live weight.
Patoa has over 1100 farrowing huts, which are moved around over the 300ha of pasture. A sow produces an average of 2.2 litters per year, with an average litter size of 11 piglets, of which 9-9.5 survives to weaning. Sows have about six litters before being culled and replaced. The well-regarded Verkerks small goods company in Christchurch is a market for the cull sows.
Some of the risks to piglets are weather-related. Prolonged wet weather means restrawing the huts so the piglets can keep warm and dry. Prolonged hot, still weather means the sows spend all their time in wallows and become careless of their piglets.
Patoa aims to wean similar numbers of pigs 52 weeks of the year. Summer infertility in sows and boars is a problem. In the commercial herd gilts are served with a boar, but aged sows undergo AI.
After weaning at four weeks of age the piglets enter a two-stage finishing system. Stage one is the nursery area, 40 buildings containing 200 pigs each. Pigs remain here for about 5 weeks. Stage two is either a grower building (63 available at 100 per building) or a large barn holding 600 pigs. The large barns incorporate auto sort technology from the US.
By the end of the finishing period pigs are gaining weight at 1kg/day. All feed is purchased from two feed mills, one in Christchurch and one in Rangiora. All sow huts and indoor pens are carpeted with straw. Patoa has a contractor who sources and carts straw from mid Canterbury. Pigs are backloaded on the straw truck to Sockburn.
Dry sows are fed on the ground once a day using tractors with fed bins attached to the 3 point linkage. Sows are hand fed immediately before and after farrowing. 5-7 days after farrowing lactating sows are fed adlib through self feeders holding 500kg of sow nuts.
Jens and Steve were impressed with a new cost-effective finishing system in the United States which runs groups of up to 1000 pigs on slatted floor pens, with feeding and lying areas separated by a weigh scale. The weigh scale is called Fast II made by Farmweld and is an advanced automatic sorting and management system. Super-sized pens are divided into loafing and feeding courts. Pigs learn to walk through the Fast II weigh scale to get to the feeding courts, and they can be diverted in either of two ways on entry. It its most advanced use, the Fast II could be used to split feeding pigs according to their nutritional needs, light pigs getting a higher spec ration than the heavy pigs. The system produces daily records on the pen, consisting of the average weight of pigs, the lightest and heaviest, and the numbers in each 2kg LW band. Because Patoa is aiming at optimum finishing weights of 95-105kg, the Fast II system can be used to know when that goal has been achieved, and for drafting the pigs which meet the criteria on despatch day. If we sell tighter weight ranges, we can improve our returns, said Jens. The operator can set the required despatch number on the final day, and the Fast II will draft the heaviest pigs to achieve that head count.
The challenge at Patoa is to incorporate the Fast II technology with a straw-based system. Feed courts are raised (up 300mm) to prevent the straw and manure getting into the weigh scale. A vacuum truck is used to help keep the feed courts clean. 13 out of 30 large barns are in operation. Internal fit out of the other barns is ongoing and 1 barn becomes available for use per week.