Teagasc pig and poultry specialist Michael McKeon attended this month’s Teagasc crops forum and gave a good overview of the pig sector.
He outlined the possibility of taking out the middle man and getting more tillage and pig farmers to work together.
He urged farmers to contact their local tillage adviser who would set them up with a pig farm to sell grain to on a system like a 'Teagasc Tinder'.
Rye is a crop that allows tillage farmers to reduce inputs, while hitting winter wheat yields and it has added benefits for pigs.
Pig farmers use about 1.2m tonnes of grain and feed per year. This is made up of cereal grains, soybeans and fibrous products.
He noted that of those grains, about 480,000t used are barley, 360,000t are wheat and 120,000t are maize. So, rye could replace some of those grains.
Costs
As a high user of maize, Michael said the pig sector will be very interested in rye. Feed accounts for approximately 70% of the total costs in pig production.
He explained that 50% of pig farmers are home millers, so there are opportunities for farm-to-farm selling.
He noted that 60% of the animal’s total feed intake is in the finishing period. A finisher pig needs to eat 2.5kg of feed to gain 1kg of liveweight.
They go from 30kg in weight to 120kg at finishing. If the feed conversion ratio disimproves, then it costs the farmer money.
For example, Michael explained that if it takes 2.7kg of feed instead of 2.5kg to put on 1kg of liveweight, that is an extra 200g per pig per day and equates to extra costs of €124,740/year.
“Therefore, having quality feed ingredients is important,” Michael said.
Michael described a trial carried out by Teagasc. Four groups of pigs were fed four different diets. The first was a wheat and barley diet and this was the control.
The three remaining diets contained rye at different levels. The first contained 20% rye, the second had 40% rye and the last was 60% rye.
He said that the performance across all four diets was really good and was way above average. There was no significant difference in performance between diets.
Michael said: “Rye really is an ingredient that could be for pig producers in Ireland.”
He added that an inclusion rate of 40% in the diet produced excellent growth performance, adding it has a similar value to barley.
Michael said that pig farmers stick with barley and wheat because they know it works and can trust in it, but he added education is needed around diets to get farmers to be willing to change.
Audience reaction
Many in the audience noted that rye is currently sitting in sheds, not being purchased.
Some farmers were afraid that they would grow the grain and then it would not be bought.
It’s a risky situation. The pig sector needs a realistic quantity of rye to work with to keep diets consistent, but tillage farmers and merchants are afraid of being left with the grain.