Brazil is the largest country in South America with rich soil, high corn and soybean productivity, and well climate, so the pig industry in Brazil is well-developed, and pig farming in Brazil has shown significant growth since 2004, occupying the 4th position in the world ranking after China, Russia and America.
To make the possible growth, the pig producers in Brazil have been continually modernized, increasing the productivity each year and improving the quality of the herds by utilizing feed form from the industries and technical assistance of large national and multinational companies manufacturing industry equipment and chemicals.
Traditional Brazilian pig farms in the south most are small and mid-sized pig farming systems (typically with less than 250 sows). The farmers of these farms usually employ the arrangements with large agribusiness that will provide genetics, feed and technical services before purchasing the final products.
In some integrated pig farms, the producer are generally employing the complete farrowing-nursery and finishing facilities. Instead of rooms, producers use barns linked together by a system of sidewalks with low fences to guide the pigs. The finishing facilities are typically several barns, solid floors with gutter on the outside that flow to an anaerobic digester. Earthen pits are formed into channels and lined with plastic, then cover with membrane, add manure and let the naturally high ambient temp and bacteria produce the methane. As with the finishing barns, the cooling system is combination of natural ventilation, misters/fans and trees. The barns are naturally vented with spray cooling systems and trees are planted on the north side of the barns to provide shade on the roof of the barn.
In recent years, there is a new technology used in Brazil pig farms which is mostly employed in the finishing phase, the liquid feeding. The aim is to increase pigs weight gain and, mainly, the profit margins of the activity as well. In the liquid feeding system, which is nothing more than the mixture of dry feed with water, it is possible to decrease feeding costs even further. But this system in Brazil is still rare and geographically concentrated for its high investment costs. So this technology is mainly found in medium and large production pig farming units.
