Focus on cost reduction of pigs remains important

Entrepreneurs in pig farming must continue to focus on lowering the cost price. This was made clear last week (30 June) at the so-called DuRock Festival, which Klasse KI had organized specifically for young pig farmers.

Pig farming is confronted with historically high costs, which puts pressure on returns. Many of these costs are more manageable with good technical performance. Pieter Pijnenburg, HAS student and intern at Klasse KI, has mapped out the economic effect of weaning extra piglets. He has been in contact with Wageningen Economic Research about the basic principles.

The figures show that delivering extra piglets per sow in times of high costs provides an even higher economic benefit. For example, the difference in average cost price per delivered piglet - when delivering 39 piglets per sow - is about €8 lower than when 30 piglets are weaned. Respectively, the cost is €55 and €63 each. This means that the weaning of 9 extra piglets in the current high cost climate results in an even higher cost reduction than calculated with a long-term average cost.

The cost determination takes into account additional costs if additional piglets are produced. For example, the cost per sow per year increases with the aforementioned increase from 30 to 39 piglets from €1.890 to €2.145. Because the cost price for the last piglets rises less rapidly, the cost price for the last 9 piglets is approximately €28,35. This means that the last piglets are often profitable and it is therefore interesting to wean extra piglets. Pijnenburg indicates that extra expenditure for piglet feed, sow feed and labor was taken into account when weaning extra piglets.

DanBred's breeding program focuses not only on technical indicators, but also on the quality of meat. Stefan Derks, director of Class KI, we as a sector must continue to focus on lowering the cost price. "Otherwise, as an exporting country, we cannot continue to compete with other countries."

Steve Wissink

Stef Wissink is an editor at Boerenbusiness and writes about current market developments in the dairy and pig market. He also follows Dutch and international agribusiness.

s.wissink@boerenbusiness. Nl

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