THE City of Swan has been gathering public comment on the development of an artificial insemination plant, as well as a new stock feed grain mill, proposed by Westpork on Gaston Road, Bullsbrook.
Westpork's applications would see the development of a boar artificial insemination centre, which consists of a stud shed accommodating up to 188 boars at any one time.
The 60 hectare site would include 20 quarantine pens, four semen collection pens, a laboratory for packaging and quality control and a wet room, as well as an office amenities/lunch room, storage, toilets, showers and a dispatch area.
According to the application the proposed operations "will collect and distribute boar semen to piggeries around Australia".
The total building area of the proposed development is 2012 square metres.
If it gets the go ahead Westpork will employ one permanent staff member onsite, six days per week and four part-time employees at various times.
Aurora Environmental, which carried out an environmental assessment of the proposal, found no issues with heritage, the environment or any reason why the facility could not be built on the site.
"Westpork is an experienced operator in the pork production industry, owning or managing eight pig production facilities at various locations around Western Australia," the assessment said.
These include farms at Gingin, Mindarra, Martup, Serpentine, Kojonup, Mt Barker and the recent boost to its genetics from the purchase of GD Pork's 2000 head Pinjarra piggery, after the business went into voluntary administration last year.
Aurora Environmental said the "boars will be housed in a conventional, deep litter shed lined with saw dust" and that "pens will be cleaned out and bedding material replaced every 18 weeks".
"Spent bedding and manure will be immediately removed from site for reuse," the assessment said.
"There will be no liquid waste or effluent treatment system onsite.
"The shed will be ventilated with a combination of vertical and horizontal fans designed to maximise mixing and limit any potential odour generation.
"Active boars will be milked for semen, one to three times per week at the semen collection pen area in the shed.
"The semen will be processed in the onsite laboratory and distributed to other farms."
The proposed feed mill consists of two separate processing lines operating in parallel, with a combined capacity of 40 tonnes per hour.
One line would produce 20t for the non-ruminant (monogastric) market and the other 20t serving the ruminant market.
The plant would be serviced by vehicles up to 27.5m in length with a weight carrying capacity up to 87.5 tonnes.
The facility is proposed to operate 24 hours per day, five days per week with truck movements to and from the site between the hours of 6am to 10pm, Monday to Friday.
A total of 26 staff would be employed at the site, working various shifts throughout the 24-hour operating period with a maximum of 23 people on site at any one time.
The proposed feed mill would cover 5.75ha and consist of an administration building, light vehicle parking area, truck parking area, utilities building, packing/warehouse building including office and toilets, feed mill shed and mixing station.
The ground floor level of the feed mill is set at 47.5m which allows for a maximum permissible building height of 40.0m from this level, to 87.5m.
