SOUTH West pig farmer Torben Soerensen has begun upgrading his WA piggeries to build WA's first state-of-the-art facilities with the latest technology from Europe.
With a master's degree in agricultural economics from Copenhagen University and 20 years' international experience in agriculture and pig farming, Mr Soerensen has brought his Danish know-how to revolutionise WA's pork industry.
The GD Pork Pty Ltd managing director established the business in Denmark in 2007 with two business partners.
It owns piggeries at West Pinjarra, Kojonup, and Kemerton, near Australind, and plans to incorporate new technology to create renewable energy to run the facilities with high animal welfare standards.
GD Pork has invested $24 million to upgrading the West Pinjarra piggery, which is due to be finished by the end of the year.
The upgrades will lift production, bring animal health and welfare benefits and minimise odour.
Mr Soerensen said after years of lobbying, the proposal to substantially rebuild the piggeries had received regulatory approval.
"The technology we are using is being used throughout Europe quite commonly, but it is fairly new to Australia," he said.
"It will solve a lot of issues, such as waste and odour, but at the same time create energy and electricity - so why not implement it?
"All our buildings are insulated and cooled in summer and heated in winter for the little piglets, so having access to power is important.
"The industry is actually quite high tech and highly skilled."
GD Pork supplies the Singapore market, but hopes to produce more pigs to export to Asia and meet growing domestic demand.
"There is has been a shortage domestically of about 400 carcases a week, which we have had to import from the eastern States," Mr Soerensen said.
"Our aim is too boost our numbers so we can meet that demand.
"We produce about 6 per cent of WA production with 1200 pigs a week."
Mr Soerensen said the three piggeries would work together as a production chain.
The West Pinjarra piggery will be used as a breeder farm, housing artificially inseminated sows and their suckers.
Three-week-old weaners will be moved to Kojonup and fattened up, then relocated as finishers, for a short period, to Kemerton, before being sent for processing.
The project will boost numbers from 1200 pigs to about 2500 a week.
"We are the most efficient pig farmers in Australia, we might not be the biggest, but we are more efficient," he said.
"We measure that by how many pigs we can produce per breeding sow per year, which is 26.5 a year whereas the average in Australia is 18 - 20.
"We want to take advantage of that to expand further, because the market is crying out for more pork."
Mr Soerensen said upgrades would include fully-enclosed, climate-controlled, draft-free buildings for the pigs.
The methane they produce will be captured from plastic membrane-enclosed effluent ponds and used as biofuel to run generators to power the farms.
Kojonup will also have a purpose-built feed mill.
Mr Soerensen said WA had not had a new piggery established in the past 15 years, because of the hurdles of overcoming associated red tape.
He took two years to get approvals in place for his expansion.
"The approvals were the most difficult part of the process with environmental licensing," he said.
He spoke to many WA politicians who have for years promoted the "dining boom" an alternative to the mining boom.
"Here we were wanting to invest a lot of money, and we couldn't get it over the line because of red tape," he said.
"Finally things changed and we have a good working relationship with the Department of Environment Regulation (DER)."
Mr Soerensen said plans to expand the run-down Kemerton piggery had been put on hold for 12-18 months, and required an extra investment, and were due to be completed by 2018.
"Our plan is to completely demolish what is there and to build Kemerton as another breeding site," he said.
"It has been a piggery there since 1976 so it needs work."
The ultimate aim is build capacity for up to 28,000 standard pig units (SPU), with the three piggeries having a combined licence capacity of about 8000 SPU.
Murray-Wellington MP Murray Cowper and Agriculture Minister Dean Nalder inspected the West Pinjarra site last month.
Mr Cowper said the project was a fantastic opportunity for the region and the agricultural sector.
"They are modernising and refurbishing the existing piggery so that it will be environmentally friendly," he said.
"It is a big project. They will be investing a lot of money into WA agriculture and employing people for each site.
"There is the potential to meet the domestic demand, but also long-term potential to look for opportunities overseas, particularly in South-East Asia that's the vision."
Jacinta Bolsenbroek
Senior journalist at Farm Weekly.
Senior journalist at Farm Weekly.
