The boar mast - a revolution of existing conditions

General Assembly of the VdAW producer group for piglets and slaughter cattle in Ehingen / Danube

When pig producers are currently discussing one another, then there is always one topic: boar fattening. This is exactly what Peter Huber, the chairman of the producer association for piglets and slaughter cattle in Oberschwaben in the Association of Agricultural Industry (VdAW), dealt with in his opening speech at the annual general meeting in Ehingen.

Benefits

In the alternative to piglet castration many mastiffs see a number of advantages - first of all with good law, as Huber acknowledged. Thus, in the boar mast important performance features improve by 5 to 15 percent, in the case of the precious pieces, the lead is still at two percent. But here, according to the chairman, the first problem already arises. Because of the extremely different levels of lean meat in castrated and uncastrated boars, these could not be classified using the same estimation formula. The uncastrated animals would be grossly underestimated. So the split market is already starting in front of the scale, says Huber.

The boars' very thin bacon could in turn lead to a shortage of bacon supplies. Almost 100 percent of this is used in Germany to add value in processing.

effects

But Huber urged those present to think back even further - namely to production. The compulsion to join larger and larger groups already gives companies the choice of enlarging or giving up. But what would happen if it came to a two-part market in which men and women were marketed separately? Would the stables then have to be built twice as large in order to still be able to market the same group size? Or will there be specialized fattening farms for boars in the future? The chairman of the producer group raised these questions.

“I certainly don't want to demonize boar fattening,” said Huber. But in his opinion, the farmers who are currently signing a contract with the slaughterhouse Tönnies for the delivery of boars are taking a big risk. Because the long-term consequences cannot be estimated at all. The adoption of boar fattening would bring about a revolution in the existing conditions.

Piglet market

The piglet trade between the member states of the community and beyond their borders has increased significantly due to the expansion of fattening capacities. The requirements in piglet production nevertheless remained the same: a high health status in the herd, above-average biological performance and cost reduction.

With regard to the high health status, the pig marketer Helmut Gaißmaier referred to the pilot project “Piglet Health Pass”, which the marketer and the pig farming campaign for Baden-Württemberg jointly developed last year. Such a health certificate would be a decisive competitive factor in the future, which other countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands would already have to show. The disclosure of important data helps in the event of a complaint or suddenly occurring illnesses, said Gaißmaier.

Source: Ehingen / Donau [VdAW]