According to Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures, there are about 158,000 breeding sows in the Republic of Ireland at present. These are the pigs that produce litters of piglets that are then fattened and slaughtered for the meat market. CSO figures also show there are about 1.3 million growing pigs in the Republic of Ireland.
Historically pigs were kept in small numbers and were closely associated with the residence of the owner, or in the same village or town. They were valued as a source of meat, fat and for the ability to turn feed into meat very efficiently, and often fed household food scraps if kept on a homestead.
Due to present regulations these systems no longer exist. In developed nations, commercial farms house thousands of pigs in climate-controlled welfare friendly buildings. Pigs are a popular form of livestock, with more than one billion pigs butchered each year worldwide. The pig industry in the Republic of Ireland is highly intensive, with the vast majority of pigs reared on commercial farms.
Many of Ireland’s pig farmer have been involved in the industry for a number of generations and for this month’s edition of Irish Tractor, we profile a family that are in their third generation pig farming.
The O’Shea family produce pigs in four different counties in the mid-lands and they are passionate about their work which has enabled them to grow over the years. “My father started out with two pigs in the 1960s and by 1981 I was running my first unit with 80 sows producing weaners. These days, we have 2,700 sows and we produce approximately 75,000 pigs annually”. stated Michael Snr
From the homestead in Arles, Ballickmoyler, Co Laois, the O’Shea family is ingrained in the pig industry as Michael’s wife Margaret, sons Michael Jnr, Brendan, Sean and Paul as well as only daughter Deirdre are all involved in the industry.
Deirdre is the Executive Director of Irish agri-educational body AgriAware., having been secretary of the IFA Pigs committee executive beforehand. She is not the only member of the family to get involved in the pig industry at a national level as Michael Snr was previously part of the IFA Pig committee in the early 2000s as is Michael Jnr currently.
While Brendan and Sean both manage units, Paul although not directly involved in the day to day running of piggery’s has previously built some of our pig buildings and installed pig equipment through Irish Dairy Services. All of the office and admin work is done by Margaret.
“You need to have a voice at national level as you can’t expect others to be looking after you. After a number of years of low prices pig meat has been a decent price for the past six months or so. There are less than 300 commercial pig farmers in Ireland now.”
Modern pig farms are geared towards the welfare of the pigs. Animal care and comfort is the number one priority for all farmers and modern farming systems allow farmers to embrace technology that allows them to take better care of their pigs.
Since 1st January 2013, keeping pregnant sows in individual stalls after the first 4 weeks of pregnancy is prohibited. This means that, after the first 4 weeks of pregnancy, a sow is moved into group housing for the remainder of her pregnancy.
Animal welfare is an important part of the O’Shea’s daily routine and Michael Jnr who owns a 450 sow pig unit in Coolderry Co. Offaly revealed that it was one of the main focuses for them.
“In all the units, we operate a loose housing system which is within welfare guidelines. The welfare of the pigs is paramount and we make sure they have the comfort needed to thrive,” stated Michael Jnr. “We are upgrading all of our units on an ongoing basis and we have two full time maintenance men”.
EU law requires that all pigs are provided with effective enrichment material (such as straw or toys eg. Hanging chains & footballs) that allows pigs to properly carry out investigation and manipulation behaviours.
“We buy in bulk feed from a number of compound millers and we have taken great care in deciding what feed we use. We are pleased to say that our pigs are very healthy and we are doing everything to keep our units operating to the highest possible standards”
Pork is the most widely eaten meat in the world accounting for over 36% of the world meat intake.
Michael O’Shea,
The Rushes,
Ballickmoyler,
Co. Laois
M: 0872509522
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 7, October/November 2017
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