Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Pig farmers put welfare first

By Laurel Stowell, laurel.stowell@wanganuichronicle.co.nz
Whanganui Chronicle·
9 Feb, 2013 05:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Wanganui's only commercial pig farm has limited the time its sows spend in crates and is working toward an anaerobic pond system for treating its effluent.

The change to sow housing should please animal welfare activists and the pond system may create less odour for their many neighbours.

"Pigs are like barking dogs. Nobody wants them next door," co-owner Ross Skilton said.

Aorere Farms is a big operation, with 4500 pigs housed indoors in two locations and eating their way through 50 tonnes of food a week.

It was started by Allan and Doris Skilton and is now run by their sons, Ross and Grant.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It's the keeping of pregnant sows in "sow crates" that has made the most waves in animal welfare circles.

Since December 2012 the Skiltons' sows have been in the crates for only the first month of their pregnancies. This kept them safe from potentially stressful and damaging attacks by other sows.

The rest of the time the sows are penned in groups of three to six, with skilled stockmen judging which will get on together without fighting. Pigs often attack each other when they're housed together, and that can end in injuries and aborted pregnancies.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Under recent welfare code changes the Skiltons will have to stop using sow crates by 2015, which they expect will cost them $200,000. They said the changes to their operation were considerable and made "to meet the demands of the market, which is not necessarily the demands of the animal".

New Zealand's animal welfare code puts the country's pork in the top 1 per cent in the world, with Switzerland, Finland, the United Kingdom and Sweden. If the Ministry for Primary Industries permits the importation of fresh pork from overseas, New Zealand farmers will have to compete on price with other countries that have much lower standards of animal welfare.

Pig farmers would also risk the introduction of PRRS (porcine reproductive respiratory syndrome), a viral illness that kills 70 per cent of piglets and aborts 15 per cent of sow pregnancies. It doesn't affect human health but is a major headache for producers.

The Skilton farm on the outskirts of Wanganui now has about twice as many neighbours as it did when it intensified production 25 years ago. It deals with its waste, many tonnes of pig excrement a week, by screening it and mixing it with water to irrigate paddocks grazed by cattle.

In the next month it will be moving to a new system which the brothers hope will save them money, treat the waste more fully and prevent odour. They have installed an anaerobic pond to treat waste before it is spray irrigated. The pond will create methane gas that they will use to heat their piggery, and any excess will be flared off, to kill odour.

It's one of just five such ponds in the North Island, and they have high hopes for its success.

About 50 per cent of the world's pork is raised in China, and 10 per cent in the United States. All fresh pork sold here is raised in this country, while 90 per cent of ham and bacon is imported.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Earthquakes every six to seven minutes detected under Mt Ruapehu

08 Jul 10:48 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

'Serious shortcomings' in pilot academy management and systems - authority

08 Jul 06:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

Health NZ stops funds for Fit for Surgery programme

08 Jul 05:01 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Earthquakes every six to seven minutes detected under Mt Ruapehu

Earthquakes every six to seven minutes detected under Mt Ruapehu

08 Jul 10:48 PM

Volcanic tremor remains low; Mt Ruapehu is at Volcanic Alert Level 1.

'Serious shortcomings' in pilot academy management and systems - authority

'Serious shortcomings' in pilot academy management and systems - authority

08 Jul 06:00 PM
Health NZ stops funds for Fit for Surgery programme

Health NZ stops funds for Fit for Surgery programme

08 Jul 05:01 PM
'The truth will come out': Scott Guy's parents speak 15 years after unsolved murder

'The truth will come out': Scott Guy's parents speak 15 years after unsolved murder

08 Jul 09:03 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP