Wie?

Lúcio Marsal

Productiemanager

Waar?

Santa Cecília, Brazilië

Over de boerderij

  • 1,500 zeugenplaatsen
  • Verwachte jaarlijkse productie van 40,000 varkens

Nedap oplossingen

Nedap SowSense
Electronic Sow Feeding
Automated Sow Heat Detection
Heat Detection

Multiplier for Agroceres PIC

The new Santa Cecilia pig farm has been built by Copercampos, a farming co-op with a total of 15,000 sows that has been operating as a multiplier for Agroceres PIC for 22 years. The co-op is responsible for the building and running costs, but all the stock for the new operation will be supplied by Agroceres PIC.

Copercampos began working with the breeding company in the late 1990s when it started farming pigs for the first time by opening a 3,200-sow multiplier unit, and it later added another 5,500-sow multiplication farm that remains the largest the co-op operates.

Belang varkensbedrijf groeit

The pig production manager at Copercampos is Lucio Marsal, who has been involved with the co-op’s pig enterprise from the start and was promoted to his current position in 2002.

Co-op with 1,200 members

“Copercampos was formed in 1970 by 100 producers,” he says. “They started because the region concentrated on cattle production and they needed storage facilities for wheat and formed the co-op to build a grain store. It has now grown to 1,200 members and annual revenues of about 375 million euros.”

Grain is currently the co-op’s top revenue source and supplying seed is second, but pigs now make up the third largest cash stream for the business.

Nedap ESF

It was Marsal who made the decision to go for group housing and to install Nedap’s ESF system and other European-developed technology in the new 1,500-sow unit.

“I have traveled a lot, to Germany, Spain, the US and Argentina, and have seen group housing systems,” he says. “More and more countries are going to ask for better welfare, so I convinced the board to invest in that if they wanted to keep access to export markets – otherwise, in the future, we are going to have only the national internal markets.

Best solution

“I opted for ESFs because I have seen them used in most places I have visited and it is the best solution for us and the market.”

Improved welfare

While improved welfare was the primary reason for the move to group sow housing, Marsal is also looking for reduced labor costs.

Reduced labor costs

“The new facility will require less staff, but those we do employ will need more technical expertise,” he says. “It will also reduce costs because we should get better production results using ESFs and group housing, so that will increase our efficiency.”

If everything goes to plan, Marsal says the Copercampos investment in the new multiplication facility will be paid for itself in less than ten years.

Indrukwekkend nieuw fokbedrijf

The manager of the new Copercampos farm is Rafael Lazari, who joined the project in the middle of 2016 during the planning phase. He will have a team of 12 to 15 staff to run the unit when it is running at full capacity.

Lazari has experience of working at the co-op’s 5,500-sow unit and is looking forward to managing the new operation, which he says has 15 ESF stations, 2 training stations, 3 heat detection and 3 separation units – all supplied by Nedap. All equipment was successfully installed by the Nedap distributor and service company Novagri. They are based not only in Brazil, but also in countries such as Chili (head quarter), Columbia, Peru and Argentina.

Eduardo de la Maza, director at Novagri says: “For us, this project is vital because it reflexes our vision that South America, and especially Brazil, has great conditions to feed the world with animal protein. And accomplish our mission to bring to high-level technologies to these countries that add value, as Nedap equipment, which increases the competitivity of our customers for the future.”

Alfredo Lima de Castro, general manager Brazil at Novagri: “To develop this project we previously visited different farms with ESF Nedap technology. We developed a long-term planning with Copercampos professionals to evaluate different technical, economic and project options and trained the farm manager in the Nedap head office in the Netherlands and at the farm. Also, we have an expertise Service Team trained by Nedap to provide technical service for customers in Brazil. All of this with the objective to answer the confidence of Copercampos in Novagri and that its investment is successful.”

Easier day-to-day management

“I am expecting better results in terms of production, but my biggest expectation is that it will save labor,” Lazari says. “The day-to-day management will be easier, which will leave more time for concentrating on other tasks.”

Optimum milk production

In particular, Lazari is looking forward to putting much more effort into the farrowing section and managing the sows for optimum milk production.