Country Slaughterhouse Piggeries

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 81, Issue 6, 15 December 1950, Page 559

Country Slaughterhouse Piggeries

AT most country slaughterhouses pigs are kept for the purpose of disposing profitably of the offal from the slaughterhouse and of providing a supply of fresh pork for the retail business. In this article I. H. Owtram, Extension Officer in Pig Husbandry, Department of Agriculture, Wellington, and J. Wheeler, Supervisor, Northland District Pig Council, describe an efficient layout for this purpose and deal with the general management of the piggery. AS usually . more pigs are produced than are needed for supplying pork for the shop, the balance are taken up to bacon weight and disposed of through the usual channels. In fact, the piggery at a country slaughterhouse occupies much the same place in the economy of the business as it does on a dairy farm; the pigs turn what otherwise would be a waste product into a saleable commodity. As on the dairy farm the more efficient the layout of the piggery and necessary facilities the easier, more pleasant, and more profitable is the running of the piggery. A great difference between dairy farm and country slaughterhouse piggeries is that while the supply of food on the former, skimmed milk or whey, is seasonal that at the latter is steady all the year. This is a considerable advantage, especially as it is not at all easy to breed and rear suckling pigs on a diet of offal unless some other form of food supply ,is available also. As a result the usual practice is to buy the pigs as slips, and because of the regular supply of food this can be done when the market is favourable.

~.. , , . The planning and design of what is usually called the. boiling-down department and the piggery make. all the difference to the ease with which they can be operated. Unfortunately, m W cases arrangements are very crude Fau |x v Procedure raulT y rroceaure Frequently the procedure is on the following lines: —

After the inedible offal has been washed the surplus fat is trimmed off. (This is important, as the minimum of fat should, be fed to pigs;- and there will always be plenty left, for them; and the fat can. be rendered down into tallow, for which prices are good.) The offal is carted in a wheelbarrow to a copper, or coppers, which usually are of steel. It is placed in the container and a few buckets of water are added. The copper is covered with wet sacks, the fire is lit, and the contents left to cook for 3 or 4 hours. (Under the Meat Act it is compulsory for all slaughterhouse offal and butcher’s shop waste to be cooked by boiling for at least 2 hours before being fed to pigs.) Slaughtering is done early in the morning, the slaughterhouse is cleaned up, and the offal is cooked. It is fed out the following day. When coppers are used it is not uncommon for them to boil over, either because they are too full or the fire is too fierce. This makes a most unpleasant mess which is very difficult to clean up properly. . The contents may also get, burnt owing to the copper boiling dry. If burnt offal is fed, it may cause trouble among the pigs, as does improperly cooked offal; it brings on scouring and retching and generally gives pigs a setback. . The contents of the copper have to be baled out and taken to the piggery for feeding, which again is unpleasant work. '

Another drawback to this system is the difficulty of disposing of the blood. It cannot be cooked satisfactorily in

coppers because of the likelihood of it burning and the great difficulty of diluting it sufficiently with water. If it is run into a drain or creek, most unpleasant pollution is caused; if it is carted away and spread over a paddock the grass becomes burnt and attract flies. To dig or plough it in involves extra expense and work. Recommended Method The method briefly described generally proves both messy and laborious. However, the job can be done in an infinitely easier, cleaner, and more satisfactory manner if cooking is done by steam and the layout is well planned. It is an advantage if a site can be chosen on which the ground slopes from the slaughterhouse to the boiling-down plant and the piggery. All the blood, washing water, and inedible offal should be run from the slaughterhouse floor into a wooden or steel container mounted on a trolley which has pneumatic tyres or is on rails. The trolley runs to the boilingdown! plant and then on to the piggery. All cooking is done by steam in the container and all feeding out is done from it, thus reducing considerably the amount of handling. Size of Container The container should be sft. x 2ft. x 2ft. This size will hold all the offal and blood from 3 cattle beasts and 10 sheep and is sufficient for the average country slaughterhouse. The dimensions specified for the tank keep its

over-all height when on the trolley as low as possible so that material from the slaughterhouse floor can be run into the tank conveniently. On a level site it will be necessary to build up the level of the slaughterhouse floor slightly or to have an excavation into which the truck can run. In the latter case some mechanical assistance may be necessary to pull the truck up the slope to level ground. These details will depend , entirely on local conditions; if the ’ slaughterhouse is higher than the boiling-down plant and piggery, no difficulty will be experienced,

COUNTRY SLAUGHTERHOUSE PIGGERIES

The trolley should be of a sufficient size to carry the cooking tank and a container for the surplus fat and shop waste, which must be kept separate from the rest of the offal. The equipment at the boiling-down plant should consist of a small steam boiler and two steam-jacketed pans in which the tallow can be rendered down. Small steam boilers of the type required are readily obtainable, and either wood, coal, or oil fuel can be used for firing according to convenience of supply. Any local engineering firm can supply the

steam-jacketed pans. This equipment should be housed in a good building with a concrete floor, concrete walls, at least to a height of 3ft., proper drainage, and a good water supply. A steam pipe from the boiler should be brought through the wall and fitted with a suitable coupling so that a steam pipe can be inserted in the cooking tank on the trolley, almost to the bottom of it. The tank should be covered with wet sacks supported on battens. The contents should be brought to the boil and kept boiling for 3 to 4 hours. An even temperature is maintained throughout the period of cooking and all risk of either boiling over or burning is eliminated. Because there is the washing-down water as well as the blood and offal in the cooking tank, it is not necessary to add water. Advantages The cost of installing the boiler and pans is no greater than that of building coppers of sufficient size, and in cleanliness, ease of working, and saving of labour the former arrangement has tremendous advantages. The amount of fuel required is about half that necessary to do the same amount of cooking in coppers and the cooking is always uniform which is of great benefit to the pigs. Blood ceases to be a problem and, in fact, becomes an asset, as it is turned into good pig food. To feed the pigs the tank on the trolley, which, when cooking is completed, will contain approximately 80 gallons of soup and from 150 to 2001 b. of solids (from , the 3 beasts and 10 sheep), is taken down a track to the piggery. The track is a tramline, if the trolley has iron wheels, or a con- . Crete path, if pneumatic tyres are used. The piggery should be designed so that the troughs are along the front of the house. To facilitate feeding there

COUNTRY SLAUGHTERHOUSE PIGGERIES

should be a 2in. opening at one end of the tank fitted with an elbow to which is attached a sufficient length of 2in. pipe to reach from the tank to the troughs. This pipe should be held vertical by a clip on the tank while filling and cooking are in progress and should be pushed down into the troughs to feed the pigs with soup, Solids should be removed from the tank to the troughs with a shovel; this is virtually the only handling that has to be done. When empty the tank should be taken back to the boiling-down plant and washed thoroughly with a steam hose from the boiler. It will then be ready to be filled again. The provision of two cooking tanks that can be used alternately is a great convenience, as it enables the food to be spread over more feeds without removing it to another container. The quantity of food mentioned earlier is sufficient for 100 store pigs. Only a few minutes are required to feed the pigsRrinlrinn Wa+cr anrl Drinking Water and Grazing Fresh drinking water must always be available to the pigs and a special water trough with a continuous supply of water should be provided in each pen. This is of the greatest importance for pigs fed on . offal.

Access to good grass pasture is also essential and the paddocks must be of sufficient size to avoid their becoming pugged up. The pigs should all be ringed to prevent them rooting. More than one paddock should be provided so that rotational grazing can be carried out. Pasture must be maintained in good leafy condition and the best way of doing this is by controlling it with sheep. As it 'is always necessary to hold sheep for a few days in the vicinity of slaughterhouses, this does not present any difficulty. The paddocks should be harrowed and topdressed according to local practice, Pasture is important in balancing the rations of pigs and it should always de available to them. Disposal of Bones r A concrete bin into which all bones can be put after the pigs have picked them clean should be provided. In some cases the bones are burnt as fuel, but this is not really economic, as they have a considerable market value; if one cattle beast is killed per w^e k, 1 ton of bones per year will be produced. Both cattle and sheep trotters and all pieces of wool should be burnt, Trotters have no value as feed, and wool and hair many cause trouble among the pigs.

As under present conditions killing in slaughterhouses takes place on only 5 days of the week, it means that on 2 days there will be no offal. There will be some shop waste, which is, of course, fed to the pigs after the tallow from it has been rendered, but because the shop waste is not sufficient to feed all the pigs for 2 days, some supplementary food has to be used. If 2-J buckets of barley are added to the shop waste in the tank and the whole cooked with sufficient water to bring it up to the usual quantity, enough food will be provided. As this barley is used only once a week, the cost of feeding it per pig produced is very low and its effect in assisting to balance the ration is most valuable. No bones or offal that have gone bad or fermented should ever be cooked or fed to pigs. The least result is to give them a serious digestive upset, and losses can occur from this cause. Bones or offal which go bad should be burnt. Burying them is unsatisfactory as no matter how deeply they are placed it encourages vermin. Buildings . No details of the design of buildings have been dealt with in this' article, as they are dependent to a great extent on the : site and personal preference. The shed housing the boiler should be of ample size for easy working, and a store shed for feed and a rat-proof store for meal, barley, etc. should be provided. The water supply and drainage must be good. A layout such as has been recommended can be operated very easily and kept in good order, when it is never offensive. Pig production on offal is very profitable and if carried out under good conditions in a well-designed layout has none of the unpleasant features that only too often are associated with it.