Van Loon Group creates FiberFort™, an innovative and unique raw material for producing fully-fledged chicken alternatives
25 May 21
22 December 25
Company Visit to VOB Participant and First Mover Ronnie Derksen
We recently paid a farm visit to VOB participant Ronnie Derksen, who is also a participant in the Jumbo project The First Mover. This project is a collaboration between Jumbo, Best Star Meat, Wageningen University & Research (WUR), the Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals, Coops Mengvoeders, and the Market Program for Sustainable Animal Products (VDP). Together, these parties are taking steps toward sustainable pork with higher animal welfare, sourced from farms that use free-range farrowing pens and raise pigs with uncut curly tails.
Ronnie runs a closed operation with about 300 sows and 2,800 finishing pigs. He started out on a small scale with a few litters where tails were not docked. After joining the project, he stopped tail docking entirely fairly quickly. For about 2.5 years now, he has been raising 100% undocked pigs with curly tails—an important step toward future-proof and animal-welfare-friendly livestock farming.
The steering committee of The First Mover visited the farm to see how this works in practice in the barn. Ronnie demonstrated the adjustments he made to successfully raise pigs with uncut tails, and the additional measures he implements to prevent tail biting.
A fun and motivating visit that shows how innovation and future regulations are already taking shape on the farms in our supply chain!
