Managementperspektiv på grisproduktion i Lojsta

At the farm Fride, in Lojsta at the Southern part of Gotland, my family runs a pig production with 80 part-integrated sows in a "Familybox-system". The main parts of the facilities are from the early 90´s and have done their job. The production results have the last years decreased because of new infections so we have to do something before shifting ownership! This degree thesis is meant to answer the question about which the optimal extension would be today. By studying literature, use my own experience and make lots of calculations, I try to find out different opportunities. The word management is in the work title because I think it includes almost everything when we are talking planning of pig production. Studying the literature gave me background information about the different housing systems I discuss. It also gave me important numbers about the levels of straw, manure and feed. The most important material is the description over the farm, the expected production results from PIGWIN and at last the different planning opportunities. I choose to make calculation at four different planning alternatives, each with a three step development. All alternatives and steps are optimal against either using the existing buildings as good as possible or to produce 400 pigs per group for trading. All alternatives ends up with 36 sows in eleven groups, which in the last step after doubling will be 792 sows and farrowing every week. By using the material, I could give suggestion where the new buildings should be placed due to work order, protection against infections and the look of the whole farm. The product levels became after calculation lots of tables, which are mainly discussed in the discussion. Different systems and alternatives also give us different labour consumption which is shown in a few schedules. Apart from this, I also send a questionnaire to slaughterhouses because I wanted to investigate the opportunities to sell the produced pigs. The most important calculation, which is the ground for all calculations, is the tables over the adjusted numbers of animals. Due to that we will have problem to control when the gilts come in heat, we will have pigs born between the groups. These sows and pigs need to be counted in the final calculation to get corrected numbers of animals and product levels. After finding the results and starting the discussion, we can see that some alternatives are better than others. Alternative C, with 160 sows in "FTS-system", is nothing to go for when it needs bigger manure and grain storage, as well as a lot more area for spreading manure. Alternative D, with 48 sows in a modified "Familybox-system" can only be seen as a temporary solution while we are building something bigger. Left are alternative A and B, both with 7 groups in "Growthbox-system" but with different numbers of sows within the groups. My final decision is alternative B with 252 sows, rather than 168 sows, because it is easier to sell 400 growing pigs than 250. It has also a nice solution for the next extension, when we can rebuild the mating area to one farrowing section and one growth section. If we start to build tomorrow, it will be according to alternative B!