DanBred Case: Spøttrup

From good management and dedicated teamwork come great results

"Survival is our fundamental goal; the more lives we save the better – for animal welfare and for our profit."

Martin Thorgaard, Manager at Spøttrup

At Spøttrup, a professional pig production in Jutland, Denmark, they place survival as the top priority – and it shows on the entire production.

They are a testiment that you can achieve outstanding results with just few employees, as long as you have the correct, simple routines at hand.

Let Martin Thorgaard, Manager at Spøttrup, tell you how they get these great results…

"It’s not hard to manage the pigs, it’s simply about learning the routines – and the results are worth it."

DanBred focusses on more vital piglets in our balanced breeding programme. This will result in more weaned piglets per litter, which reduces the number of sows it takes to produce the same number of piglets. This way, the total amount of feed needed to produce a pig is reduced. All of this contributes to a more sustainable pig production.

Learn more about how DanBred’s balanced breeding contributes to higher piglet vitality – and survival.

Testimonial Experiences with DanBred genetics

What kind of production is this?

It’s a piglet production. We have two sow units, one with 1,150 sows and one with 970 sows. We get DanBred Hybrid YL gilts delivered at 16-24 weeks as well as DanBred Duroc boars, and we collect semen from the boars ourselves. We utilise the advantages of DanBred’s breeding progress by having a clear strategy for replacement.

We’ve seen DanBred’s breeding progress for large litters of vital piglets clearly in our production. In year 2000, we could wean 30 pigs per sow per year, now, we can wean almost 45!

How do you get that many weaned piglets?

Well, aside from the breeding progress, management is key. Survival is our fundamental goal; we want all our animals to live. The more lives we save the better – for animal welfare and for our profit. So, we take extremely good care of the piglets in the first few days of their lives.

We benefit from focusing most of our efforts on the farrowing unit. And the efforts pay off later in the piglet’s life, where less time and efforts are needed.

Why are the first days of the piglet’s life so important?

In our experience, the extra efforts we put in around farrowing, we save later on in the pig’s life, where everything runs more smoothly because we distribute our strengths well.

Actually, these results are achieved with quite simple management routines, as I said, it’s about those little things. So, we have to be detail-oriented.

How can you do this with so few employees?

We have five fulltime employees at each sow unit, and everyone has their own, specific tasks and responsibilities. It’s not hard to manage the pigs, it’s simply about learning the routines – and the results are worth it.

As I just mentioned, we focus a lot on the farrowings. We always want to improve the piglet survival, and we want to make sure our efforts pay off on the number of weaned piglets. At the moment, we wean almost 19 pigs per litter.

For example, in collaboration with SEGES Innovation, we have recently employed a night shift to help out when we have a lot of sows farrowing at the same time. We usually have around 900 weaned pigs a week, and we hope the extra support will lead to even higher survival.

And what role do the employees play in this?

They’re alfa omega. We have very good people, and they’ve worked here for a long time. Not everyone had experience with pig production, before coming here, but they learn. Even though, we all have our different focus areas and tasks, we work together as a team.

This is definitely important for the very good results we have.

Actually, these results are achieved with quite simple management routines... We always want to improve the piglet survival, and we want to make sure our efforts pay off on the number of weaned piglets.

Martin Thorgaard, Manager at Spøttrup