Farmers Weekly Awards 2015: Pig Farmer of the Year

Rachael Bright

Oak View, Honiton, Devon

Although still in her 20s, Rachael Bright has built up a flourishing pig operation delivering impressive numbers, driven by an innovative home-grown wet-feed system, thanks to her willingness to experiment and a keen eye for detail.

The business, based on the family farm near Honiton, Devon, runs a 500-sow breeding unit, a weaner unit and a 4,000-capacity finishing unit, operating on three sites.

Sows produce an average of 11.8 pigs a litter a year, with a preweaning mortality rate of just 8%.

“I would rather have 12 good pigs than 14 small ones,” Rachael says.

See all the winners and pictures from the night on our Farmers Weekly Awards page.

Piglets are weaned on a Wednesday and more than half of the sows have come into heat by Sunday.

Rachael serves them that week, using AI to get a sow conception rate of 98%. Each sow produces an average of 2.5 litters a year, giving an output of close to 30 pigs a sow a year.

After weaning the piglets are moved to Rachael’s weaner unit where they grow from 7kg to more than 30kg.

They are then moved down to the main rearing and finishing unit, where they spend a further 15 weeks being brought up to a slaughter weight of 80-110kg.

At the finishing unit Rachael targets an ambitious mortality rate of 1%.

“We are currently a little bit over that, but less than 2%,” she says.

Rachael is justifiably proud of her bespoke wet-feed operation.

The computer-controlled system tailors the diet to the pigs’ needs, milling straights such as wheat and barley and mixing them with whey protein and co-products including ice cream waste.

Rachael also adds amino acids to the feed to ensure the pigs protein requirements are met, to maximise growth efficiency.

The system uses a phase-feeding approach, tracking the growth curve of the pigs and carefully adjusting the feed mix to optimise its contents for each growth stage.

The result of this focus on feeding is a rolling feed conversion rate of 2.4 for the finishing unit. Rachael is now looking to offer her computerised wet-feed system to other farmers.

Rachael has recently refurbished the finishing unit, making it controlled-environment, and invested in a new fully slatted, controlled-environment fattening shed with a capacity of 750.

Rachael is considering a further investment in a new finishing shed from French supplier I-Tek, with a ventilation system that extracts air from beneath the slats using fans located outside the shed.

Rachael likes this approach as she feels the pigs are disturbed by the constant noise of the ceiling-mounted fans used on the existing sheds. She recently visited France to see an I-Tek unit in action and was impressed.

She generally aims for a five year payback on any major investment.

Keen to continue improving her business she joined a benchmarking group of about 30 pig farmers who meet every three months.

Having achieved so much already in her relatively short career in pigs, Rachael is clearly one to watch for the future.

Finalists

Graham Shadrack

Peels Farm, Attleborough, Norfolk

Graham’s innovative approach to overcoming challenges, his investment in new capacity and the way he treats the pigs like they were his own have all helped to build a strong contract rearing and finishing business that totals 4,500 pigs in tents to manage.

Danny Skinner

Lazyfold, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

As a monitor farm for Quality Meat Scotland, Danny has shown meticulous monitoring of herd statistics can deliver powerful results.

His relentless focus on performance numbers and investment in facilities has produced a successful 440 breeding sow business.

Pig Progress’ message

“These three excellent finalists have all made significant progress in pig production, which is what Pig Progress is all about.

“As a global sister title to Farmers Weekly, we are proud to be associated with the UK’s most progressive pig farmers.”

Vincent ter Beek, editor