Helen & Mark’s formula for content pigs and high-quality

Helen & Mark’s formula for content pigs and highquality pork

“A happy pig is one that is given the ability to enjoy every day, with all their needs met, optimal space and the opportunity to express all their normal behaviours,” says pig farmer Helen Andrews. “That’s the way we raise our pigs and they really thrive.”

WORDS AND IMAGE SUPPLIED BY PORK NEW ZEALAND

Helen and husband Mark’s pig farm near Pleasant Point in South Canterbury, provides the perfect moderate climate, free draining soil and low rainfall for outdoor pig farming. Their sows farrow in paddocks, each with their own hut and are fed a speciallyformulated diet, including barley, wheat and maize plus fish meal for protein. Their piglets roam in the field together before being moved to open-sided covered enclosures with deep straw as weaners. Helen learned her stockperson skills growing up on a dairy farm in the UK before heading to New Zealand for her OE working on dairy farms in Southland and Canterbury, meeting Mark along the way. After a year of both working in dairy in the UK, they returned to New Zealand looking for an affordable option to start their own farming business. Sharemilking was out of their reach but a 40ha block to enable them to establish a pig farm was manageable. The challenges around soil and climate mean that many of New Zealand ’s pig farms are necessarily indoor operations—55 per cent are bred indoors, 42 per cent outdoors and 3 per cent are free range. The industry breeds more than 637,000 pigs a year. However, Canterbury is one of the few areas of the country suited to outdoor commercial pig breeding—due to its moderate climate, low rainfall and free-draining soil. The Andrews started out in 2004, building the infrastructure for their farm themselves and beginning with 300 sows, with piglets sold on at four weeks old. Following a major expansion and acquiring more land in 2016, they now have 440 sows and raise over 10,000 weaner pigs annually to point of sale in their own pig finishing unit. They also introduced cattle to the farm, with pig effluent and used straw from the pig huts used to make fertiliser to grow winter cattle feed. They are committed to giving back to the industry. Helen is a director of industry body New Zealand Pork and last year completed an internship with EA Networks in Ashburton through the Institute of Directors’ emerging directors programme. Pig farming is very different to pastoral sheep and beef farming. Sows on a commercial New Zealand pig farm will produce over two tonnes of pork per annum. By comparison, the average ewe with twins will produce about 40kg of lamb. That requires a lot of input and focus on every individual sow. “We love working with pigs,” says Helen. “They are so rewarding for a stock person. Every one of our sows gets individual care. We know exactly how each pig is doing, how they are eating and performing and that everything is as it should be – that’s the skill of contented pigs and high quality New Zealand pork.”

IMAGE: Helen Andrews, daughters Eve and Honour and husband Hamish at their farm in Pleasant Point