Around 15,000 people visited Farmer Expo in Debrecen this year, which is one of Hungary’s leading international agricultural and food trade fairs with a history of more than three decades. Bonafarm-Bábolna Takarmány Ltd. was one of the 200 exhibitors and participated as a sponsoring partner with several colleagues giving talks as part of the professional programme.
During the three day event Hungarian and foreign companies active in or related to agriculture exhibited their products and services, while the fair also hosted sector specific conferences, with experts presenting the most important developments in each field, discussing the most pressing issues, the latest research and production results.
Tibor Nagy, Director of Integration and Strategy
Bonafarm-Bábolna Takarmány Ltd. was one of the main sponsors of the swine conference. We were responsible for organizing the events of the first afternoon and our colleagues gave talks in various fields, such as the swine market, swine nutrition and health. The participants were greeted by Gergely Balassa, CEO of Bonafarm-Bábolna Takarmány Ltd., with Tibor Nagy, Director of Integration and Strategy at Bábolna Mezőgazdaság introducing our group of companies, including the integrated operations and results.
Gábor Bakó, Director of the Pig Farming Division
Gábor Bakó, Director of the Pig Farming Division at Bonafarm Mezőgazdaság was the next speaker and introduced our swine integration system that is outstanding in the domestic sector. The speaker described the structure of the Division and told the participants that the Division and its integration partners produce over 650,000 slaughter pigs annually. He then proceeded to talk in detail about the operational model of our sow and fattener integrations, describing what our company offers and what our partners have to provide to make this cooperation successful and profitable. He also spoke about how our company provides regular consultancy on nutrition and breeding, high quality feeds, continuous and up-to-date information through our swine integration website and continuous availability of our slaughterhouse in Mohács. The future of the integration was also discussed, with a focus on digitalisation and increasing our partner base.
Gergely Katona, Director of the Pig Breeding Division
Gergely Katona, Director of the Pig Breeding Division at Bonafarm Mezőgazdaság gave a talk on post cervical insemination and practical experience with this method. This method of insemination consists of using a special catheter to deposit semen above the cervix. We have been applying this method since 2014 on our farms and over 9000 of our own sows are inseminated this way every year. Gergely told the participants that by using this method we can increase production results, organise work more efficiently and use less semen, while it is quicker than other AI techniques and we obtain immediate feedback regarding the success of insemination. The success of the procedure is underlined by the fact that several farms have achieved results comparable to the best 25% of internationally renowned Danish farms.
Dr. János Tenke, Manager, Swine Nutrition
Dr. János Tenke Manager of Swine Nutrition at Bonafarm Mezőgazdaság gave a talk about new aspects of sow and piglet nutrition, as well as developments and solutions our company provides. He spoke about how measures improving sustainability are becoming more and more relevant in the swine sector. Research and development has made it possible to implement innovative feeding solutions in practice by incorporating them into existing feeding strategies to improve the use of available resources and thus the performance of the animals. For the past years we have been focusing on the development of solutions that aim to improve crude protein digestibility in weaned piglets. Another area of focus was to improve our sow feeding strategy by striving to improve the metabolic activity of the sow and to increase mobilisation of nutrients during the various production phases. These developments contribute to improving the vitality of piglets after transfer to the fattening unit, which indirectly might improve the performance of fatteners as well.
Beside our colleagues, Gábor Fitos, President of the Hungarian association of Swine Breeders and Producers; István Reisz, CEO of Lajoskomáromi Sertéstenyésztő Ltd. and Gábor Jacsó, CEO of Tiszaszentimrei Mezőgazdasági Ltd. were also invited to give talks at this event.
Our colleague, Gergely Katona had the opportunity to talk to participants on the next day also. The organisers of Farmer Expo asked swine genetic companies to introduce the hybrids available in Hungary. Gergely gave a presentation on the DanBred genetics used at Bonafarm Mezőgazdaság and the results achieved. He spoke about the change of genetics in our Division in 2014 and how our company has become a strategic DanBred partner as the years passed. Our Group chose this genetics because of its outstanding growth potential, high lean meat yield and excellent meat quality. The last 10 years have confirmed our choice, the swine division of Bonafarm now achieves production results that are outstanding even in international comparison.
In the afternoon session “Precision farming: individually and economically tailored to the farms”, Dr. Orsolya Vida, senior product manager at Bonafarm-Bábolna Takarmány Ltd. gave a talk titled “Vision or reality? – an objective account of precision pig farming”. Orsolya spoke about how the market of precision tools is dynamically expanding with the developments in IT, but investments are limited due to a lack of appropriate capabilities and motivation. Detailed calculations on the return on investments or commitment to innovation and sustainability might be the drivers that will move pig farmers towards integrating precision tools into production. Orsolya highlighted feeding as an important area, since most of the investments so far in Hungary have been directed at the implementation of precision feeding stations for gestating and lactating sows. The vision for the future is to expand the scope of precision tools and their range of application in pig farming by the use of artificial intelligence. This will result in significant advances in the long-term operation of pig businesses in a way that complies with profitability and sustainability principles.
Our colleagues were also present at the booth of Bonafarm-Bábolna Takarmány Ltd. to welcome all visitors, as well as our present and future partners.
