The building has 26 floors and annually raises 1.2 million 130-kilogram pigs. Only 150 people are enough to operate the colossus.
Šťastná was in China on a professional sightseeing tour. She explained that the extensive forty-hectare area near the town of E-chou was originally owned by a construction company. Six years ago, the concrete was said not to sell, so they started a new company, Modern Animal Husbandry. They invested approximately 2.4 billion crowns in the construction of the animal primary production company. “It’s a national high-tech enterprise,” explained director Šťastná, stating that it is a compromise that meets both the requirements for high intensity and efficiency of production, as well as animal welfare and consideration for the environment.
Photo: Hana Šťastná Archive
The whole pig farm is monitored by cameras.
“I couldn’t believe my own nose and ears on the spot. There was no stench or noise near the building. And that’s where a fifth of all pig farms currently living in the Czech Republic are located,” describes Šťastná.
She explained that the reason for the minimal smell is the perfect circular waste management. Manure (1,100 cubic meters per day) is turned into a biogas station for electricity and heat next to the pig skyscraper. Residual water is cleaned and returned to the production system, solid digestate is burned in a cement plant.
The head of the South Bohemian Agrarian Chamber further described that the pig breeding in the skyscraper is closed on every floor. This means that the entire breeding cycle takes place here – from the sows’ farrowing (1000 farrowings per floor), through the birth of piglets, to fattening up to slaughter weight. On the ground floors there is a central control room for automated and remotely monitored traffic.
200 breeding boars live on the top floor. “Smugglers are protected from infections by very strict hygiene measures. They are cared for with air conditioning, showers and a supply of high-quality Chinese-made feed, which on average is 2.5 kilograms per kilogram of growth. The average number of piglets raised per sow per year is around 23,” stated Šťastná, adding that the entire operation employs 150 people. This August, the company plans to open its own meat processing plant three kilometers from the mega-pork farm.
Photo: Hana Šťastná Archive
Hana Šťastná in the Chinese mega-pig
“The smart piggery is just a small example of a different view of the Chinese on food safety. Only three years passed from the idea of its construction to approval,” emphasized Šťastná.
She complained that in the Czech Republic it takes more than five years to simply process all permits for the construction or reconstruction of large-capacity facilities for livestock breeding. “And these large-capacity facilities of ours are 25 times smaller. We are not even half self-sufficient in pork meat. In the South Bohemian region alone, the number of pigs has decreased by eighty percent over the past twenty years. The Chinese are building capacities. We are successfully building dependence,” says the director.
