FARMING and the breeding of animals for food is a fact of life in a country with a growing population and an increasing demand for affordable meat.
But there are many different ways of achieving that goal.
Amid increasing concerns about livestock welfare and the origin of the food on our plates, reporter HELEN KREFT and photographer SIMON DEACON took a trip ‘down to the farm’ to see how a family business is a world away from intensive rearing and managed to gain RSPCA-accredited status by providing the best environment for its pigs.
MERCER Farming is a family business in its fourth generation. Founded by Percy Mercer in Harlaston in the 1930s, the company has grown to a national degree with its headquarters in Bartonunder- Needwood.
I don’t pretend to be an expert in pig farming or ever thought I’d write about it but I am a typical girl and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to coo over the weekold piglets.
Before I was given a guided tour by Rob Mercer, now the managing partner of the company, I had been under the impression that Mercer Farming was based on one large site.
However, I quickly realised that it breeds thousands of pigs both for its free range pork, which is eventually sold to butchers, and also under its Freedom Foods banner which then appears in supermarkets up and down the country.
The one large site suddenly multiplied.
Robert established the company’s well known Packington Pork brand in 2002.
On the other side of the business is Packington Poultry, managed by his brother, Alec.
If plans go its way, Packington Pork will expand into a growing empire able to control the conditions of its pigs.
It has just submitted a planning application to East Staffordshire Borough Council for permission to build two new pig houses, as part of its outdoor-rearing (freedom foods) operation.
Rob said: “The outdoor-reared pigs are both bred and live outside for the first 12 weeks of life, with the second half of their lives spent indoors on straw bedding.” The sheds which house the pigs for this time are often referred to as “finishing houses”.
It is a pig finishing facility which has been proposed for Bonthorne Field, off Dogshead Lane, Barton-under- Needwood.
Packington Pork sells the meat produced by this method to premium retailers including Marks & Spencer, for their own-label produce.
Rob added: “The free range side of the business keeps the pigs outside in large paddocks for the entirety of their life, and it is these pigs which are sold under the Packington Pork banner to butcher shops nationwide.” I experienced first hand the daily workings of a pig farm after paying a visit to what could be referred to as a maternity ward based in a large field.
Hundreds of little huts (or arcs) are scattered about for mother and her piglets to stay in.
We met the Christmas Day piglets, which we managed to accidently wake up, and the worried mother who suddenly appeared from across the vast expanse of field to give us a sniff.
When the piglets are weaned off their mother’s milk, they move into large kennels with a warm indoor area but the pigs still have large outdoor areas to explore.
As they grow old enough, they are moved into outdoor rearing paddocks.
It is from here they are moved to the finishing units which are situated in third party farms.
Rob said that while they would continue to use their third party farms, the new finishing facility would allow double the amount of pigs in a larger area enabling the business to grow and give the company more control.
In addition, the new facility would also allow the business to lower its carbon footprint: The sheds have been designed with natural ventilation, solar panels and a rainwater collection system, and the manure created by the animals will go straight back into local farmland.
Having the sheds close-by to the outdoor-rearing facility should also lower transportation requirements.
Rob Mercer said: “We are very excited about this proposed expansion for the business.
“We hope that by introducing this element of our farming onto our farm near Barton-under-Needwood we can demonstrate our commitment to both maintaining our local environment as well as contributing to the economy.
“We have carefully planned the location of the sheds so as to cause no disruption to the community.”
If planning consent is granted, Mercer Farming anticipates the finishing sheds will be completed by the end of the summer.
