Standards and profitability of pork production in Transdanubian farms

Pogány, Éva – Tenk, Antal – Troján, Szabolcs – Varga, Rudolf

Keywords: standards of animal keeping and feeding, quality of production, costs, prices and revenues

Nationwide data indicate that the pork industry is in crisis. Our survey of 11 farms in the Transdanubian region, done between 2006 and 2008, shows that reasonable revenues can be achieved by quality operations which are appropriately organised. The data of the animal stock covered by the research (over 6,000 sows and an average of 100,000 store-pigs a year) indicated that while production costs were continuously increasing, there was a significant difference between farms depending on whether they were part of the industrialised production system (integration). The specific indices measuring the reproductive performance of sows and the utilisation of feedstuff clearly showed the division between the two groups, and their revenues, revealing that farms belonging to the industrialised production system fared better in this regard.

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