February 22, 2010

Denmark embarks on Pig City project

Danish scientists are developing plans for a housing unit with pigs at ground level and tomato plants in greenhouses on the first floor, in Galten near Ã…rhus in Denmark.

The project is one of a number that came out of the Danish financial institution, Realdania's contest for agricultural buildings of the future and is about to materialise.

The 'Pig City' concept hinges upon reducing CO2 emissions and making pig farming sustainable and odour-free. One of the pig farmers behind the idea is Søren Hansen who plans to create Denmark's most modern and energy-efficient food production complex - in this case, by combining an annual production of around 20,000 finishers with 1,100 tonnes of tomatoes.

The idea is that the greenhouses will benefit from the heat generated from the pigs while the manure will be used as fertiliser. The end result is CO2-neutral and odour-free pig production, said Hansen.

Pig City will be operated on a farrow-to-finish principle. Animal welfare benefits include larger stalls, straw for sows during the period up to farrowing and loose housing systems for sows. The system also includes a slaughterhouse, thus there is no risk of the pigs becoming stressed during transportation to the slaughterhouse.

In terms of the environment, a biogas and slurry separation plant will be designed so as to maximise their financial and environmental impact. The biogas plant will be supplied by slurry and production waste and any surplus energy will be used to heat the greenhouses. The purified liquid faction from the separation plant will be used to water the plants.

He said they are in the process of drawing up a budget and getting approval from the authorities. If everything goes smoothly, construction should start in the spring of 2010 and the first pigs ready by 2012.