Hungarian company invests heavily in sow management and piglet rearing

The project garnered much interest from the trade press; among others, Agrárágazat reported in June 2023. Article by courtesy of Agrárágazat. 

A farm for 2,000 sows was constructed in Telekgerendás, while the piglets are reared in Pusztaföldvár. Just a bit more than a year after the groundbreaking ceremony on 24 February 2022, FirstFarms Hungary Kft. and the mostly local construction partners had already added the finishing touches. On an area of nearly 18,500 m², 750 tons of steel, 20,000 m² of sandwich panels and 1,750 truck loads of concrete were poured into the project. 

The buildings have been equipped with innovative technologies and automated systems. The investors were very committed to using renewable energies. For example, power is supplied by solar modules, and a technology that is currently unique in Hungary generates heat from slurry: Thermal energy produced in the slurry pits is collected in pipes and transferred to the heating system via a heat pump.   

FirstFarms Hungary Kft. took over an agricultural company last year, branching out to the arable crop industry. They currently have around 500 hectares available and want to expand these areas, aiming at being able to produce their raw pig feed materials independently and to distribute the slurry on their own grounds.

The Danish FirstFarms group has been listed on the Copenhagen stock exchange since December 2006 and has around 2700 stockholders. The group employs around 400 staff, has subsidiaries in four countries and 17 production locations. 

In Slovakia, FirstFarms keeps 3,000 dairy cows. Together with the locations in the Czech Republic and Hungary, the group produces 165,000 piglets and 100,000 finishing pigs per year in the region. Cultivated areas amount to 21,000 hectares. 

Before the takeover in 2017, FirstFarms Hungary Kft. operated under the name Dan-Farm Hungary Kft. The company currently has a breeder farm with 2,500 sow places in Gádoros in South Hungary. Upon reaching a weight of seven kilograms, the piglets are transported to the neighbouring village of Orosháza, where they continue to grow until they reach a weight of 30 kilograms. 

With the new sow house in Telekgerendás, the number of the company’s sow places has risen to 4,500.  

This most recent investment in two locations is planned to be the first step on the way to a 4,000-head sow farm. The management of FirstFarms Hungary Kft. is hoping to convince investors to construct more buildings on both farms after successful completion of this project. Their goal is doubling the current number of sows and piglets.