At Agroalimentaria Chico we are at the forefront in terms of new technologies and animal welfare. We are committed to our environment, and we implement energy policies to reduce the carbon footprint generated by our facilities.
We are strengthening our commitment to the protection and caring for the environment by developing innovative projects to have more sustainable and effective farms, such as the new farrowing/lactation quarters at the ‘El Bardal’ farm.
The new farrowing/lactation quarters at the ‘El Bardal’ far
The goal of the enlargement carried out at the ‘El Bardal’ farm was to build new farrowing/lactation quarters in which the main priority was animal welfare.
All the project has been defined by concepts such as its sustainability, technification and data control and, above all, the comfort and care of our Duroc pigs.
These quarters have a capacity for 48-64 farrowings, this allowing, in the first place, a much quicker visual control than in conventional farrowing quarters, as well as making other daily tasks (such as the movement of animals, cleaning and disinfection, etc.) quicker.
Our Duroc sows are our passion, and therefore, the dimensions of the farrowing pens are larger than those required by the animal welfare law. They offer more space to the animals and they have a design that allows to increase the space for the mobility of the dam after the first days of lactation, improving the sows’ comfort and protecting, at the same time, the piglets with anti-crushing elements.
The lactation stage has a vital importance because milk plays an essential role in the piglets’ final results. These new premises have an automatic feeding system that allows to design different feeding curves, and control the distribution of feed and the length of the meals along the day, as well as the amount of feed allocated at each moment of the day and the way in which the animals will consume it.
Also, all the information is gathered in a database controlled by an internal server connected to the web, and this provides us access to the system in real time and from anywhere in the world. This system affords a total control over the animals and a great amount of information that will help us with their management, as well as with the decision making in production matters.
Commitment regarding the environment
All the systems at the ‘El Bardal’ farm rely on a renewable energy source thanks to the installation of solar panels on the farm buildings roof, this reducing our carbon footprint by 62 tonnes CO2/year, this being equivalent to the CO2 absorbed by more than 3,000 trees in a year.
At ACH we are totally convinced that the future of animal production is already here and that the incorporation of technology into its processes will makes us more sustainable, efficient and competitive in a progressively nearer future.
