New hog houses smelling like success in Chongqing

CHONGQING — Unlike the stinky surroundings of a traditional pig farm, Xiang Chengbing’s farm is almost odorless.

The pigs are raised on the top floor of Xiang’s two-story hog house, which has a floor made of carbon steel net.

The ground floor is occupied by an automatic waste collection machine that pushes the waste outside. When mixed with crop straw and probiotics, the waste is made into organic manure.

“When pigs live a happy and comfortable life, their meat will be better,” Xiang said while watching the pigs on a surveillance monitor.

Xiang, 55, is the general manager of an ecological farming company in Chongqing’s Wanzhou district.

The farm is among 86 ecological pig farms set up in the district in 2018.

Xiang, who has raised pigs for over 20 years, said it is the first time he has not used water to clean his farm.

Chen Rong, a consultant with the district’s agriculture and rural affairs commission, said traditional pig farms use a large amount of water for cleaning, and the dirty water mixed with waste is hard to process, emitting foul smells.

“After being washed with water, the humid hog house also makes it easier for the pigs to get sick,” he said, adding that the new type of hog house avoids the use of water and largely eliminates odors.

Chen said the commission has also promoted the use of a watering facility that collects and recycles pigs’ spilled drinking water.

Xiang said probiotics and some traditional Chinese medicines are added to the feed, helping improve the pigs’ immunity to diseases. The healthier pigs, which are free of antibiotics, are sold for 20 percent above the average market price, said Xiang, adding that the pig waste can also be sold as manure.

Yang Bo, who manages an orange farm in the district, regularly buys manure to fertilize the 7,000 orange trees on his farm.

“The waste used to be too wet to transport, as it was mixed with water,” he said. “Now that the new type of hog house has been adopted, we can buy the manure at a price lower than organic fertilizer.”

A million pigs are expected to be raised in ecological farms in Wanzhou by the end of next year, and the industrial chain in the district will have output worth 16 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) a year, Chen said.