It takes an entire day to feed all the pigs reared in the great outdoors on a farm in Denmark, such is the scale of the somewhat unique enterprise.

Peter Bruun, 59, and his wife Lene Conradsen, 48, run 1,100 sows on their Greensgaard Farm, located at Vorslunde, close to the small town of Give.

These sows produce around 30,000 pigs per year that are fattened for slaughter and sold under a rolling contract to the Rema 1000 supermarket chain.

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The farm extends to 1,000 acres, 250 of which are used to keep the pigs outdoors, and the rest is allocated for growing cereals as feed for the animals.

Farrowing takes place outdoors and the pigs are later moved indoors to complete the fattening process. Animal welfare is a priority on this farm, especially when in the fattening barn where they have ample space and access to an outdoor arena.

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Each year, the farm uses around 3,500 bales of wheat straw to bed the pigs both outdoors and indoors, which are contract baled on 1,000 hectares.

At the end of the year the outdoor pigs are moved onto fresh land, and the previous plot is regenerated by plowing it up, then planting with cereals returning to grass the next year.

A MAMMOTH JOB

This is quite the mammoth task as there are some 30 miles of fencing to shift, which usually takes two months or more to move to the new location.

The farm runs 18-20 staff that come from eight countries. Each works a 37-hour week, receive regular training and even attend yoga classes held on the farm to boost employee motivation and morale.

In terms of machinery, there are five tractors each accumulating 1,000 hours per year, and four John Deere Gator machines. A number of feeding machines and other implements make up the fleet.

While Denmark escapes all the threats from African swine fever (AFS), there are other disease challenges that pig farmers can face, as Brunn and Conradsen found out.

Disaster struck in 2022 when the entire herd was hit by a viral disease and the couple decided to start over again, this time with new pig genetics. This meant a switch from DanBred to Topigs Norsvin TN70 sows crossing with Duroc DanBred boars.

Conradsen said, “We prefer the TN70 breed as the litters are smaller, around 16 in number, but the piglets are bigger. They reach the slaughter weight of 94 kilograms quicker too.

“Each sow averages 30 pigs per year with the outdoors system, compared to around 40 if indoors.”

Feeding takes place every day from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The sows receive around 4.5 kilograms each per day depending on outside temperatures and if they are nursing pigs.

Piglets are weaned at 35 days old when at an average weight of 11-12 kilograms. During the five weeks fattening period indoors the pigs are fed according to size and age.

This means 1.75 feed units per kilogram growth from 11 kilograms to 35 kilograms, and then 2.75 feed units per kilogram growth from 35 kilograms to 120 kilograms.

The sows produce five litters of pigs before being slaughtered. The farm’s mortality rates are 4% for the sows and 4-5% for the pigs from weaning to slaughter age.

PROCESSING AND MARKETING

Twice a week a truck visits the farm and collects 420 of the fattened pigs and transports them to a private slaughterhouse in Videbaek on Zealand, just a few hours away.

Staff at the slaughterhouse dedicate the entire day to killing Brunn and Conradsen’s pigs, which are then transported to a number of processing hubs to be packaged for retail. 

Bruun said, “We are very happy with this agreement. We really feel that there is a partnership with Rema 1000 regarding our product, and we have had a lot of direct contact with the consumers.”

Brunn’s farm is quite unique in that there are not so many outdoor pig farms of a similar size in Denmark. Finding a specialist outlet for their meat was quite a challenge as the couple found out, but in 2018 they agreed terms with Rema 1000.

Bruun said, “We wanted to sell our meat boosted with the story of the farm and how it was produced. This proved quite a challenge as buyers didn’t seem so interested in this marketing concept.”

Finally, after trying a few buyers, Brunn contacted Karsten Dejbjerg, the former CEO of the Friland retail group, who had started his own trading company.

And now they have a working arrangement where Conradsen and Brunn produce the pigs, Karsten’s company, Tamaco, handles the logistics from farm to supermarket, and the supermarket sells the packaged meat.

“We produce the pigs, then Tamaco is responsible for distributing the products from the pigs to the stores, which consist of independent shopkeepers who order two or three times a week,” Bruun said. “In the end there were some tough negotiations with Rema 1000, which was definitely not something we could do alone.

“Rema has been a fantastic partner and are really positive about our system of production. They are not an opponent, but a teammate, and we now feel that the concept is something we share with them,” he said.

Bruun and Conradsen’s responsibility to the brand goes beyond their photo on the packaging, as they also frequently interact directly with consumers.

For example, the couple host visitors to their open farm event on the first Saturday of each month, to see the pigs in the barn and the fields.

Also, they attend some of the Rema stores to meet consumers, and interact with many more on social media to explain how the pigs are reared on the farm.