Antibiotics-free pork label sees Danes opt-in per piglet

An antibiotics-free pork-labelling initiative worth 20-25p/kg hinges on the eye of Danish pig keepers in the farrowing house.

The Danish Crown labelling scheme sees piglets tagged as antibiotic-free at the neonatal stage, with the tag removed at any point in the piglet’s life if treatment with antibiotics is deemed necessary.

And while early farm trials have shown a production drop of 2-2.5 piglet per sow a year, the premium covers additional costs if 35% or more piglets carry the tag to the slaughterhouse, farm trials show.

© Danish Agriculture and Food Council

See also: Stress makes pigs more susceptible to costly disease

Antibiotics-free tag allows:

• Coccidia treatment
• Sows treatment during nursing period
• Zinc oxide in weaning feed

“I need to sell more than 30% of pigs with ear tags to break even after the extra work,” says Stine Mikkelsen, who is managing to sell more than 60% of her piglets under the new label from her 500-sow unit on the island of Bornholm.

A major review of hygiene and health on the Mikkelsen farm has been required to reduce antimicrobial use to boost revenue by £11.25 for every tagged pig sold.

And while production figures have decreased and there is an additional cost of labour, she says it “feels good” to farm in this way.

“I am a nurse and I have seen what resistant bacteria can do to people,” she explains.

“I am very motivated to do something about it – it’s a hard route to take, but I have a good feeling about this system.

“This is not a typical change in management, it requires extra focus every day.”

The Mikkelsen’s farm suffered a huge hike in vaccination expenditure in 2014, but more recently this works as “cost neutral” against the decrease in antibiotics purchasing.

See also: How Devon pig farmer is saving £30,000/year by slashing antibiotics use

And while the unit only takes pigs to 30kg, only 5-7% of antibiotics-free tags are lost in the finishing period, she explains.

Betting on your piglet

Mrs Mikkelsen and her staff make a personal judgement about the viability of a piglet to prosper without antibiotics and the ability of a sow to rear successfully.

Generally, this sees a lower limit of a 900g piglets still being tagged if they’re healthy and have plenty of colostrum from a good sow, she explains.

“Weighing piglets and checking their behaviour is key to their success,” she says.

“Ideally, piglets around 1.1-1.2kg are big enough for me to have confidence and put the tag in.”

Extra vaccinations