We visited a sow farm of the company Bifet Gracia accompanied by its manager, Eduardo Bifet, and by the farm manager, Antonio Aguilar.
The company Bifet Gracia is a family business specialized in the production of pork and beef cattle. We visited their breeding farm with 2,500 sows located in Castillonroy (Huesca), one of the main areas of pig production in Spain.
BIFET GRACIA
Family business, independent producer
Eduardo Bifet speaks proudly of the company’s strategy.
Bifet Gracia is a familiar company that, within the competitive sector of the Spanish pork, has remained an independent producer.
On the one hand, the company has followed a strategy based on carrying out the complete cycle of breeding and fattening of animals. On the other hand, in the use of own installations. Within the context of production and with the cyclical crises it suffers the pig sector, it is not easy to remain as an independent producer in Spain.
The company Bifet Gracia is clear on the concept that, to be able to compete within today’s pork industry, it’s necessary to work in a very professional way. In this sense, Eduardo shares their vision of how important is the incorporation of technology on the farms, but to do so strategically by looking for systems that provide solutions to specific problems and offer a good return on investment.
We walk around the farm with Antonio Aguilar, who is in charge of the sows’ farm. Antonio had developed his professional activity in the agricultural sector and joined the company 13 years ago, when the farm was in the project phase. He was involved in the construction, which is an advantage since he knows the facility in depth. Then, he went to work on the farm assuming different responsibilities until he reached his current position as head of the breeding farm.
What was the main reason for installing automatic feeders in the maternity ward?
Maternity feeding, formerly with a manual system, had been identified as one of the limiting elements of farm productivity.
The number of times the sows could be fed manually was a limitation to the consumption of feed in the maternity ward and also meant a very important workload for the staff. In addition, to improve productivity we opted to make a change in the farm’s genetics towards more prolific animals.
With this change, looking for more numerous litters, it became even more evident the need to install an automatic feeding system in the maternity ward i...
