The Neixiang Muyuan Meat Industry Complex, a smart pig farm owned by Henan-based pig farming giant Muyuan Group, comprises 21 six-story buildings, each with the capacity to produce 100,000 pigs annually. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
The highly intensive and intelligent pig farming facilities in Neixiang county, Henan province have significantly improved pig production efficiency and pork quality.
Yuan Hebin, deputy general manager of Muyuan Group, China's pig farming giant based in Henan, told China Daily on Monday that the Neixiang Muyuan Meat Industry Complex, the company's largest and most technologically advanced smart pig farm, is estimated to produce over 1.7 million pigs in 2024.
The roughly 187-hectare facility, which integrates feed processing, pig farming and slaughtering, has 21 six-story buildings, each capable of producing 100,000 pigs per year, he said.
"Compared to traditional single-story hog houses, this facility increases land utilization rate by 4.3 times," Yuan said.
Yuan said an intelligent feed processing center next to the breeding area produces 720,000 tons of feed annually, which is transported to the hog houses through an intelligent pipeline system. Once ready for market, the pigs are directly transported to the slaughterhouse within the complex by unmanned transport vehicles.
The Neixiang Muyuan Meat Industry Complex, a smart pig farm owned by Henan-based pig farming giant Muyuan Group, comprises 21 six-story buildings, each with the capacity to produce 100,000 pigs annually. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
He said the facility is equipped with self-developed intelligent environmental control, feeding and inspection systems, making pig farming much simpler and easier while greatly improving production efficiency.
The hog houses' intelligent air filtration system, with up to four layers of filtering devices at the air inlets, makes the air quality inside close to that of an intensive care unit, effectively preventing highly contagious African swine fever and other pig diseases, Yuan said.
"Our philosophy is to use advanced equipment and persistent innovation to provide pigs with a comfortable and disease-resistant environment, to ensure the high quality of pork," he added.
Zhang Longfei, general manager of the facility, said pig waste is fermented into organic fertilizer and then piped free of charge to 6,000 hectares of nearby farmland.
"This sustainable approach not only addresses environmental pollution issues but also helps farmers reduce the cost of fertilizers," he said. "The use of organic fertilizer boosts crop yield on the farmland and allows us to conveniently purchase high quality feed ingredients, which is a mutually beneficial arrangement."
The facility buys around 600,000 tons of grain annually from Neixiang and the surrounding areas, Zhang said.
He Jian, director of Neixiang's agriculture and rural affairs bureau, said the county's 74 large-scale pig farms produced 3.5 million pigs in 2024.
The county is leveraging Muyuan's support to foster the development of its livestock industry chain, aiming to become the country's top pig producer and an agricultural and livestock equipment hub, he said.
