February 26, 2007

Danish meat processor discover emptying pig's stomach can save feed costs

A meat processor in the Netherlands have discovered an interesting way to save feed costs: emptying pigs' stomachs.

Vion Foods' Fresh Meat division managing operations director Maartien Kusters said every week, the company's pig slaughterhouses are disposing 500 tonnes of undigested feed from pigs. The disposal costs of this feed are around EUR650,000 or more than US$800,000 annually.

On average, a carcass contains 3 to 3.5 kilos of undigested feed. Besides the costs involved, the risk of bacterial contamination increases when undigested feed is in contact with the carcass. Vion therefore recommends that farmers sell their pigs with an empty stomach.

This also lowers the feed costs for the farmer, according to Kuster, adding that the feed is not converted into meat anymore and is therefore recommended to stop feeding pigs 12 to 16 hours before they are transported to the abattoir. He illustrated a pig with a slaughter weight of 91 kilos that was brought in with an empty stomach is around 4.4 kilos heavier than a pig that is fed till the end of his life. When the dry matter percentage from the stomach and intestines is 35 percent, normally around 1.5 kilos dry matter is lost. At a feed price of EUR0.18 (US$23.72) per kilo dry matter, it will cost the farmer EUR0.28 (US$0.36) per sold pig. By not feeding the pigs prior to slaughtering, a farmer who sells 5000 pig annually, could save around EUR1400 (US$1,844).

This process is already running in some Vion slaughterhouses wherein farmers also receive an overview of the weight of the contents of the intestines.