Pig farm Production

Denmark
  2000

Process description

The present data refer to production processes on six typical Danish pig farms, which combines livestock and (cash) crop production in a mixed farming system. The pig production can be either sow-keeping alone (selling piglets for fattening), only fattening of pigs (25-90 kg) or both. Nitrogen balances for different pig farms can be seen here. The main characteristics of the six farms are summarized in Table 1.

Table 1: Main characteristics of the considered pig farms.

 

Loamy soil (clay)

Sandy soil

Livestock density

<1,4

1,4-1,7

>1,7

<1,4

1,4-1,7

>1,7

Number sows

40

111

166

42

153

184

Slaughtering pigs produced per year

677

1.791

3.010

1.120

1.481

2.660

Land area (ha)

58

77

68

75

79

67

Piglets per sow per year

21

21

22

20

20

21

Wheat yield, ton per ha

7,0

7,3

7,7

6,6

6,3

6,3

Spring Barley yield, ton per ha

5,4

5,8

5,7

4,9

4,5

4,8

Home-grown feed, pct.

64

34

17

55

28

17

 

A large part (ca. 50%) of the feed for the pig is produced on the farm mainly as cereals, because overall legislation sets minimum requirements for land available for manure application for each separate livestock farm. Moreover, some of the farms with lower stocking rate produce grains, rapeseed or grain legumes as cash crops. Most sows are of high genetic potential and 57% of sows are inseminated artificially (AI). Most farms have stables with slatted floors (manure handled as slurry). 3.3 % of the sows live in outdoor production systems with small mobile huts in grass paddocks. All used water and effluents from stables are collected in concrete slurry containers with a minimum capacity corresponding to 7-9 months slurry production (application to fields is only allowed from March to September). Cultivation of crops is often done using farmers own equipment while harvest of grains is most often done by contractors. Increasingly, however, contractors carry out all field operations on large pig farms. Equipment is usually modern and most processes are highly automatic.

There is most often one owner and 1-4 full time hired helpers, most of who have diploma in farm management. Most farmers use modern feed planning methods and regular feed analyses to adjust protein levels and minerals and all follow public regulation concerning manure nitrogen utilization and fertilization.

Data collection and treatment

Data collection:

All Danish farms are obliged to keep detailed records of purchases and sales for tax purposes and the yearly accounts are made with professional help. A representative set of these accounts, 2239, are reported by the advisors to the Danish Research Institute of Food Economics (FØI) and constitute the basic empirical input to the farm types presented here. Besides the economical data, information on the land use, livestock numbers and amounts produced are included in the data set by the advisors.

Data from other sources are used to model the technical processes: Data from the advisory services (feeding practices), the Directorate for Food, Fisheries and Agri-business and Statistic Denmark (countrywide use of fertilizer and concentrates, partition of land use on different crops and their total yields). The Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences (DIAS) together with FØI and Statistic Denmark is responsible for data collection.

Data treatment:

The data processing and details of the different farm types is the responsibility of DIAS and FØI. The FØI checks the account data and has divided the accounts according to the farm typology presented. These average data from each farm type has been used by DIAS to model a typical farm in terms of land use, herd size and production. The inputs and outputs (products and emissions) from the production processes are quantified using the farm level as the basic unit and all the single enterprises have been described so that they fit coherently into the overall farm balances (e.g. crop production must fit the sum of homegrown feed used and exported). Thus, inputs of fertilizer, feeds and minerals are calculated to mach the livestock and cash crop production after correction for home grown feed (see also under validation).

The nutrient turnover on the farm is calculated by multiplying the physical turnover of inputs and products with N and P contents following standard procedures. Emissions of ammonia, methane and nitrous oxide (N20) from the livestock, stables, manure storage and handling and from crop residues and soil are calculated using standard coefficients (IPCC, 2000)) on the amounts of nutrients and feed dry matter (DM).

Direct Energy use is determined by the use of a model that attaches diesel use to field operations following Dalgaard et al. (2000).

Technical scope 

The inventory includes all processes on the farm necessary for the cultivation and preservation of crops and home-produced fodder (e.g. soil preparation, sowing, fertilizing/manuring, plant protection, harvesting and transport of crops).

Feeding and tending sows, young stock and pigs and handling of bi-products such as manure and straw, use of electricity for ventilation and light is also included.

Resource use and emissions related to the production of fertilizer, imported feeds, minerals and electricity are handled as external processes. This means that they should be included in the calculation of emissions per kg of meat at a later stage. Use of medicine is not considered. Resource use and emissions related to the construction and maintenance of buildings is not included. Depreciation of machinery is included with rough standard estimates based on the use of steel for tractors and tools.

Most pig farm types produce small amounts of other product than piglets and meat, e.g. bread wheat. All inputs, resource uses and emissions related to these secondary enterprises have been included in the inventory. Only technical allocations have been made between enterprises within the farm and only when resources used could be clearly divided between the enterprises. Systems expansion has been used to account for these secondary products and for the exported manure from farm types with high stocking rate. Thus, the difference in fertilizer use and emissions on the manure receiving farm type (modeled as before and after manure import) has been allocated to the manure farm type.

Representativity

The dataset of 2239 accounts used is statistically representative of the Danish farming sector (59000 farms in total) following a method developed over several decades for yearly economical analysis of Danish farms (farm typology presented) and for reporting to other bodies like the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network.

The data represent only one year (1999), but the large number of farms allows for some generalizations of the input-output relationships.

The established typology is based on the main enterprise and a given farm could be included in only one type.

The present pig farm types are based on 6 sub samples. Together they represent all Danish pig farms with a minimum of 10% of farm Gross Margin from pig production (a small group of organic pig producers are not represented). The total pig production on these types account for 78% of the total pig meat produced in Denmark. The farms have been divided into groups in order to represent pig production on sandy and loamy soil types respectively and with different stocking rates (number of standard livestock units per hectare). All types have a sufficient number of farms to ensure a high degree of representativity, with the smallest samples found in types with high stocking. Farms with low or medium stocking rates usually produce 1-3 secondary products, which may differ from farm to farm. The resulting farm type thus represents an average of these secondary enterprises, but the number of small enterprises is not typical for a single farm.

Included pig farm types:

 

Loamy soil (clay)

Sandy soil

Stocking rate unit?

<1,4

1,4-1,7

>1,7

<1,4

1,4-1,7

>1,7

Number of accounts

51

28

99

104

39

165

Pct of total Danish pig meat production

4%

4%

21%

13%

5%

31%

There are important differences between the pig farm types. The farms on clay soils tend to feed more imported feeds and crop residues because cash crop production is relatively more competitive than on sandy soils. The farms with high stocking rate sell part of their manure production.

Validation

The representativity of the farm accounts has been checked using standard methodology at FØI. The resource use and production on the farms have been validated at two levels: Internal coherence within each farm type and overall coherence between the sum of farm types and national level input use and production.

On the farm level the quantification of each type has been validated primarily by checking the coherence between land use, crop yields and livestock production (e.g. the feed needed for the herd matches the home-produced feed plus imported feeds less sold cash crops and the sum of homegrown feeds and sold crops fits the land use).

At a higher hierarchical level the land use has been validated by comparing the sum of each crop acreage over all types with national statistics for the same year, e.g. checking that the total wheat area and total wheat yield does not differ more than a few % from the national statistics.

Likewise, the total estimated use of inputs like diesel, fertilizer and concentrated feeds across all farm types have been checked against statistical information on national level. In case of differences that could not be ascribed to an error in a specific type, a general correction factor was multiplied into all types for the relevant input item. For more details, see Data Treatment.

Inputs and outputs

Inputs and outputs associated with production processes at the six different types of pig farms are shown in table 3. Data are provided per farm per year. The farm type, “Sandy with livestock density < 1,4 LU per ha” is considered the marginal farm; that is, the farm type most likely to expand production in the future.

 

Soil type

Loamy (clay)

Sandy

 

Stocking rate

<1,4

1,4-1,7

>1,7

<1,4

1,4-1,7

>1,7

Products

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring barley

kg

0

0

0

0

0

0

Winter barley

kg

0

0

0

0

0

0

Bread wheat

ton

108,0

158,2

151,3

85,5

109,2

71,7

Wheat

kg

0,0

0,0

0,0

0,0

0,0

0,0

Rye

kg

0,0

0,0

0,0

0,0

0,0

0,0

Oat

kg

0,7

0,7

0,7

0,7

0,7

0,7

Mixed crops

kg

0,0

0,0

0,0

0,0

0,0

0,0

Rape seed

ton

14,9

18,8

18,4

19,6

15,0

16,1

Grass seed

ton

0,9

0,0

2,6

2,8

1,4

2,1

Peas

ton

3,9

3,1

1,7

6,6

6,4

6,4

Potatoes

ton

0

0,0

0,0

5,6

18,3

44,1

Straw

ton

61,2

82,9

67,36

30,2

39,1

27,0

Sugar beet

ton

28,6

36,0

149,5

62,1

13,6

18,2

Grower pig (30 kg)

ton

3,7

11,6

15,3

0,0

45,2

29,4

Pork meat

ton

70,4

203,1

315,1

118,7

157,0

284,1

Manure

ton

0

0

4526

0

0

4739

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Materials/fuels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter barley

kg

0

0

0

0

0

0

Wheat

kg

0

0

0

0

0

0

Spring barley

ton

1,7

42,6

101,1

9,2

51,9

98,2

Winter barley

ton

1,7

42,6

101,1

9,2

51,9

98,2

Wheat

ton

3,4

85,2

202,1

18,4

103,9

196,4

Soy meal

ton

44,2

117,9

191,2

64,3

122,8

183,9

Lubricant Oil

liter

814

1142

1116

931

1047

955

Manure

kg N

378

0

0

497

0

0

Fertilizer , Calcium ammonium nitrate

kg N

6717

7293

5542

7004

5746

3987

Fertilizer P

kg P

541

391

582

654

122

817

Fertilizer K

kg K

2373

2262

1906

2948

1705

2038

P, Mineral Feed

kg P

614

1716

2745

858

1838

2659

Grower pig (30 kg)

ton

0

0

0

8,7

0

0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Electricity/heat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Electricity Denmark

kWh

26408

73140

92856

37082

64472

95081

Heating

MJ

64979

179536

275561

80591

183887

289012

Traction

MJ

286383

402039

392755

327738

368388

336016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emissions to air

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Methane

kg CH4

977

2640

4280

1465

2652

4056

Ammonia

kg NH3

1887

4038

5519

2560

4262

5327

N2O

Kg N2O

410

574

547

524

676

566

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emissions to water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nitrate

kg NO3

17986

21330

17867

26040

33511

26168

Phosphate

kg P

70

160

208

107

178

242

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Non material emissions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arable land use

ha a

58

77

68

75

79

67

Location in database: Processing/Agriculture/Farming on...

Administrative information

Data URL: http://www.lcafood.dk/processes/agriculture/pigfarms.html
Version no.: 0.01
Authors: Niels Halberg, Danish Institute of Agricultural Science and Per H. Nielsen 2.-0 LCA Consultants.
Data responsible: Randi Dalgaard and Niels Halberg, DIAS

Contact: Niels Halberg

Data entry: data have been entered into Simapro by Randi Dalgaard, DIAS and transformed into this format by Per H. Nielsen, 2.-0 LCA Consultants
Data Completed: July, 2003.

References

Anonymous, 1999:Ammoniakfordampning – redegørelse nr. 1. Emission af ammoniak fra landbruget – status og kilde. (Ammonia emission from Danish Agriculture.

IPCC, 2000. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Good Practice or Guidance and Uncertainty Management in Greenhouse Gas Inventories.www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp

Dalgaard, T., Halberg, N. og Fenger, J., 2000. Simulering af fossilt energiforbrug og emissioner af drivhusgasser. Tre scenarier for omlægning til 100% økologisk jordbrug i Danmark.