Uniformization agreements on pig farming are being overhauled in the Netherlands

The growth trajectory is standardized in order to be able to compare companies with finishing pigs with each other. The last revision of that calculation model dates from 2012. Much has changed in pig farming since then. The lay-on weight of piglets is still around 25 kilos on average, but the delivery weights increased by about 8 kilos, bringing the final live weight up from 118.5 to almost 125 kilos. 'As a result, the process over which corrections are made has become longer and the effects of less correct assumptions greater,' says Kasper Bekker of Saldo Advies Varkenshouderij. In March, he raised the issue of revising the calculation rules. Feed intake If it is up to Bekker, for example, the feed intake in the final phase from 117 kilos will become a variable that the company fills in itself. In practice, there are large differences between farms in feed intake in the final phase. The last kilos of growth cost more feed than is currently used in the corrected figures. Another ...