A44-L«ncaster Farming, Saturday, November 6, 1993
SCHAUMBURG, HI. Say
goodbye to the old-fashioned pig
pen. Increasing numbers of swine
today are being raised in luxury
pig penthouses.
Animal preference studies and
advances in high technology have
ushered in a new age of forming
creating an environment that
meticulously provides for live
stock needs, said Dr. Gregg
BeVier, vice president of Pre
mium Standard Farms, one of the
country’s largest hog producers.
Premium Standard, based in
Princeton, Mo., is the quintessen
tial example of high-tech farming.
More than 8,000 monitors are
wired throughout complex. Gene
tics. nutrition and environment are
carefully controlled and adjusted
to provide optimal conditions for
the growing pigs.
"In many ways, big farms like
ours improve the welfare of the
animals,” BeVier said. “We have
the wherewithal to provide ideal
conditions.”
BeVier, a veterinarian with a
master's degree in business admi
nistration, is one of nine farm ani
mal welfare specialists from
around the world who spoke at the
American Veterinary Medical
Association’s fourth annual Ani
mal Welfare Forum on November
5 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in
Rosemont, Illinois.
In addition to state-of-the-art
environment. Premium Standard
Farms is also taking advantage of
the latest management practices.
Rather than simply raising the
hogs and selling them, BeVier’s
managers carefully control each
stage of production; all livestock
is conceived, raised, slaughtered
and packaged by Premium Stan
dard. Since the company can liter
ally track one hog through the sys
tem. it has total control over qual
ity, Dr. BeVier said.
This practice, commonly called
integrated farming, is about five
years old, though the idea has
been bandied about for more than
two decades. When Premium
Standard Farms went into busi
ness four years ago, executives
Pig Pens Go High Tech
were committed to the concept.
Today, they credit the process
with the company’s exponential
growth.
Dr. BeVier admits, however
that start-up costs are heavy, and
only the biggest farms can afford
to implement the idea. Still, he
believes integrated forming is the
wave of the future. Today, some
10 percent of the meat sold in the
United States is raised on such
farms. Dr. BeVier says. Over the
next decade, he expects this figure
will balloon to 30 percent
“It’s turning into a big corpo
rate business.” he said, adding that
increased demand for integrated
farming will be inevitable as con
sumers and export markets
become more particular about
how their meat is grown and
slaughtered.
In turn, companies such as Pre
mium Standard Farms must be
constantly on the lookout for the
best and most efficient ways to
raise and handle animals. Many
traditional practices developed
over the years on small, family
owned farms have not been
viable for large producers. Dr.
BeVier said.
“The average farm in the
United States has SO sows. Here in
the near future, we will have
80,000 sows,” BeVier said. “Ani
mal housing and welfare is a key
issue becuase dealing with SO
sows and dealing with 80,000
sows is completely different.”
Because Premium Standard
Farms is so large, maintaining and
improving the whole population is
crucial. To do this, the-pigs are
housed in conditions vastly diffe
rent from the stereotypical pig sty.
Instead of wallowing in mud,
corporate swine are housed in spa
cious, well-ventilated bams. Their
floors are flushed several times a
day by an automatic cleaning sys
tem. Temperatures inside do not
fluctuate the buildings' envir
onmental systems are on the same
kind of controls that regulate
office complexes and skyscrapers.
Food, medication, and water is
tightly monitored. By carefully
controlling and measuring these
kinds of variables, farm managers
can continue to improve condi
tions for the pigs, BeVier said.
‘‘l can tell you when our ani
mals choose to drink water,"
BeVier said.
“Is that important? I might not
know today, but as we change
feeds, as the temperature changes,
as we change facility types any
of this might alter the drinking
pattern of the animals. We need to
know that.
“The better we document what
we do and how the animals
respond, the more we’re going to
know.”
BeVier acknowledges that big
farms like Premium Standards
have been criticized by some who
think that animals are happier in
more natural conditions like the
traditional family farm.
He notes, however, that there is
no way of knowing if animal is
indeed “happy.” Instead, Premium
Standard relies on behavioral stu
dies that test preferences in swine.
The results of those tests are incor
porated into the farm’s day-to-day
management practices, he said.
“Air temperature is an exam
ple,” BeVier said. “Larger animals
like it a little cooler.
“We- actually have a growth
curve as the animals grow, the
somm to
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building gets cooler for them. It is
all programmed in and computer
operated. That’s an advantage you
get from high technology.”
But not all improvements
require vast computer systems and
blinking monitors. Right now, for
example, Dr. BeVier is thinking
about building an indoor play
ground for the farm’s oldest hogs.
While the fences, ramps and
bridges might reduce boredom
amongst the pigs, the real reason
for installing them would be to
reduce stress, Dr. BeVier said.
“We're trying to find unique
ways to transport the animals,” he
Americans May
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) Geoige E. Seidel Jr* a
1993 Penn Stale Alumni Fellow,
recently presented several talks
for students of agriculture and fel
low animal scientists at the Uni
versity Park Campus.
According to Seidel, a profes
sor of reproductive biology at
Colorado State University, it is
likely that Americans will be us
ing products of animal origin at
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said
“You just can’t say. Hey guys,
get into a single file and go. We
need to find ways to load and
unload animals so they don’t feel
like they’re being loaded and
unloaded”
The playground's “toys” would
be designed to look and feel like
the farm’s loading ramps. “If the
pigs are used to walking up and
down these things, loading die
animals will be no problem.”
BeVier said
“We try to alleviate animal
stress," he said. “If we find things
that work, we want to do it that
way.”
Import Ag
the same level in the year 2025 as
now.
He said that if societal con
straints limit our capacity to pro
duce animals, “we’ll buy them
from other countries, much as we
buy our televisions and automo
biles elsewhere today.”
Seidel was elected a member of
the National Academy of Sciences
last year, the pinnacle of scientific
achievement.
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