Work organisation in pork production

Abstract

Hungarian pig production lags far behind its potential European competitors and even behind its own potential. The largest obstacle to its catching up is in low level human resource management. The collected data shows that the sector was shocked by problems with national and international trade appearing in the nineties, a huge lack of capital, and a significant fiscal burden. The rapid and drastic changes in the existing structure and proprietary systems further worsened the competitiveness and market position of Hungarian pig production. By the time of the change of regime, the number of pigs had dropped to 6 million from 10 million, and it has been continuously decreasing since. According to HCSO figures, the number of pigs was 3.181 million in June 2009. However, since the beginning of the nineties, not only the number of pigs has decreased, but the consumption level has too. In 1990, pork consumption was 38.8 kg per capita, while in 2007 it was only 27.6 kg, a figure similar to that of the year 1960. Analysis of the production and efficiency of the pig farm in Somogysárd showed that, in terms of most factors used to determine competitiveness, it lagged far behind businesses from counties with developed pig production. The difference is especially visible when considering the figure of kilograms of feed used for one kilogram of weight gain. This data was 4.14 kg of feed per one kg live weight in Somogysárd, it was 2.65 kg/kg in the Netherlands and 2.69 kg/kg in Denmark. The farm rated similarly poorly in terms of number of sows per worker (Somogysárd 18.88, England 70, and USA 88 sows per worker). In detailed labour management analyses, the structure of the working day was defined at the chosen farms on chosen days. According to the results, the proportion of productive time was the most favourable in the case of the farrowing stable, it was followed by the sow and boar stable, and the fattening stable. The results of time-loss were similar to those of productive time. The competitive analysis of the involved farms (Farms I, II and III.) led to the conclusion that all three of the farms lag behind farms in counties with developed pig production in terms of production, breeding, and efficiency indicators. Feed use was rated extremely poor (e.g. as it varied between 2.81 and 4.14 kg/kg). Although the best Hungarian farm performed 5% better than the Hungarian average, it was still 10 percent behind the Dutch or Danish results. An eye-catching difference was seen in case of the daily weight gain; farms I and II could not reach even the Hungarian average figures. The best performing Somogysard farm was superior to Spanish farms’ average, but it was 21 percent poorer than the Danish and 14 percent worse than the Dutch pig farms. In the course of the data analysis, many work management mistakes were revealed. On the Somogysárd farm, using shifts causes high time-losses at all workplaces; while the high number of workers resulted in poor basic time and productive time and high time-losses at farm III. Language: English