Pig Farm Uses Geothermal Steam For Heating, Cooking

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29714, 6 January 1962, Page 13

Pig Farm Uses Geothermal Steam For Heating, Cooking

'The Press” Special Service

ROTORUA, January 5. The first pig farm in New Zealand to use geothermal steam for heating and cooking food is now well established in Spa road, Taupo. Owned by Booth and Birnie Farms, Ltd., the 73-acre farm uses steam from a 200 ft bore to feed vegetable waste to 700 pigs and heat 10,000 square feet of buildings. The two main buildings are steel-roofed with concrete walls and floors. Light is admitted to the pens through lengths of reinforced plastic set into the walls and running the length of the buildings. Constant Temperature At present the two buildings house 56 breeding sows with young in pens thermally heated and kept to a constant temperature of between 65 and 70 degrees during winter and summer. Mr J. E. Booth, one of the owners and a mechanical engineer, said it had taken 13 months to build up a stock of 180 breeding sows. Recently 71 pigs were born in less than 24 hours. Breeding sows each consume seven to eight gallons of vegetable waste a day.

According to Mr Booth, this is only half the quantity of food they would require if they were fed on whey. The company prefers young sows and expects to get five or six litters from each before disposing of them. So far there has been little trouble from skin or foot troubles and digestive disorders. Processing Food AU food is screened to remove foreign matter and chopped finely with a series of mincers. It is then cooked and passed into a 2000-gallon holding tank to be kept at a high temperature until it is needed. The cooker can process about two tons of waste in about two hours and works' continuously. ! From the holding tank the! food is pumped along 500 ft of piping, using a pump similar to those used in breweries: In the final stages of pumping the feed minerals and vitamins are added as required. HandraUs in the pens act as supply lines to the troughs. In this way the whole feeding process can be completed in about 25 minutes. Supply

lines are cleared by pumping clean boiling water through them. Weaners from the pens are kept inside for three months and are then put into large open paddocks. At present about 200 weaners are outside. Detecting Sickness Mr Booth said the system had the advantage of the manager being able to see all pigs at least once a day. Consequently, sickness could be remedied at an early stage. The company aimed at producing pigs weighing 31b at birth and this was now being realised. At one week old the pigs weighed about 71b. Most breeds are represented, including Large White, Berkshire and Landrace, and efforts are being made to evaluate -the best type for conditions on the farm and for the market.