New Mixed Farm presents stables without nitrogen emissions

In a week in which the term nitrogen emissions dominated the news and the livestock industry in particular had to put up with a lot, a special new shed complex was presented in Grubbenvorst. The New Mixed Farm is a collaboration of farmers who thought about the problem years ago and are now proud to show off their new low-emission stables.

The last weekend of September was the day. Invited guests, and later other interested parties, were allowed a peek at the brand new stables of the New Mixed Farm. Plans that arose years ago, and caused much discussion, have been realized and partly already been put into use.

Four collaborating businesses

The New Mixed Farm is a collaboration of four family businesses. Martin Houben heads the Houbensteyn Group in Ysselsteyn. This pig farmer is a leader when it comes to corporate social responsibility and innovation. His cousin Gert-Jan Vullings is also a pig farmer and owner of Heideveld Varkens in Grubbenvorst. The company Kuijpers Kip, owned by brothers Cor and Marcel Kuijpers from Heeswijk-Dinther in Brabant, found in the New Mixed Farm the ideal place to expand their core values of quality, food safety and animal welfare. The fourth partner is the Christiaens Group from Horst, which is responsible for the technological process of the bio-energy plant.

Gigastal

The chicken stable 'De Kloeke Kip' and the pig stable 'Heideveld' are located about a kilometer apart in the agricultural development area Witveldweg in Horst aan de Maas. There is room for 1.1 million chickens and more than 30,000 pigs, large numbers that are needed to make the sustainable measures possible. Scaling up is therefore not an end in itself, but merely the means to achieve the benefits being sought. Currently 250,000 broilers have moved into the barn, the pigs will follow in November.

Mission

The animals are housed in low emission stables at the Nieuw Gemengd Bedrijf. The air coming from the stables, the slaughterhouse and the bio-energy plant is additionally cleaned with the best chemical and/or biological air scrubbers. The current poultry house scores fantastic figures: "Zero percent nitrogen emission, zero percent ammonia emission, zero percent fine dust and zero percent germs", says Joris Kuijpers of Kuijpers Kip.

Short Chains

An important objective of the New Mixed Farm is to achieve short chains. Several links are combined on site, so that no supply of live animals is necessary. This promotes animal welfare, but also supports the closing of cycles, the reduction of transport kilometers (at least 800,000 km less per year) and the reduction of antibiotic use. The broiler farm consists of a broiler parent holding, a hatchery, a broiler farm and a slaughterhouse. Thus, no disposal of live animals is required here either. In the case of pigs, there is the feed factory and the sow and meat pig farm.

Preventing disease

Thanks to the high numbers of animals, it is possible to provide for the young animals themselves. Because these do not have to be supplied, the most common route of disease spread has disappeared. To avoid using preventive antibiotics at all, additional measures are taken within the barn complex to prevent disease.

Energy

All necessary energy is generated by 1500 solar panels on the roofs. In addition, the heat from the large chickens is directed to the hatching eggs. A 5-megawatt bioenergy plant will process all manure, offal and other organic streams from the chicken and pig farms and organic residual streams from neighboring farms into useful raw materials (such as mineral concentrate, compost and purified water).

These are just a few of the measures by which the New Mixed Farm is working to ensure the careful, sustainable, animal-friendly production of healthy and safe food. Many more details of this special collaboration can be read on the website.

Source: Financial Journal, New Mixed Farm