The NFU wants to gather evidence from farmers, councillors, surveyors, land agents and planners. Respondents will have their feedback included as part of both the Government’s Rural Planning Review, and Housing White Paper.

The NFU survey can be found here.

NFU Vice President Guy Smith said it was essential those involved in planning issues impacting on farming businesses took part in the survey so the NFU could engage with Government on possible future changes to planning rules and regulations.

Major headache

“From farm shops to polytunnels, and farm reservoirs to changing use of agricultural buildings, planning regulations continue to be major headache to our members, adding unnecessary burden and costs which can be barrier to business growth,” he said.

“We also need to have a consistent planning system, and for those who have the final say on any applications to be given thorough training so they are better informed of their rights and responsibilities.

“Ultimately, the planning system should enable businesses to be viable and vibrant, ready to pass on to future generations.

“Fundamentally, we need to produce more food for our growing population and reduce our reliance on imports.

“This needs to be achieved both profitably and sustainably. The town planning system should contribute to this need by helping to create conditions for a strong sustainable farming and rural economy.”

Most local planning authorities will be putting up fees from July onwards. However, if an application has been received by the local planning department before then and is valid (the local authority has the information it needs to assess the application), then the current fees should apply.

The NFU is advising farmers to ensure the planning authority issues a receipt to acknowledge they have received your application.

The union described the price hike as ‘an unwelcome step for many farmers’, who already pay considerable fees. For example fees for agricultural buildings are based on the floor space and range from £80 to £250,000. This is on top of fees to agents to put together applications.

It accused the Government of failing to recognise this when they assessed NFU evidence from the Rural Planning Review.

The union said: “The Government is suggesting the additional money can be used to fund planning departments and it will consult on increasing fees further for local planning authorities who can show they are reforming their service and committing to performance improvements.

“While NFU cannot stop the government bringing in the July fee increase, we will be lobbying further on this issue as excessive fees will put members off from applying for permissions. Simpler planning rules benefit farmers and reduce local authority workloads so they don’t need to charge more.”

“We’re absolutely thrilled with the initial demand for the guide, and its popularity indicates that ventilation is an area that producers and the allied industry want to learn about,” said AHDB Pork’s environment and buildings project manager, Susan Rabbich, adding that making the guide available in print was the next natural step.

“The content of the guide aims to help pig producers provide optimum living conditions for pigs, thereby improving production efficiency, through a better understanding of the principles of ventilation and types of system available.

“We’ve received positive feedback about the guide but particularly with regard to the producer case studies. Farmers like that they can relate to the problems other producers have encountered and learn how to overcome them.”

Link to order hard copy of the guide

Having been called out on “numerous occasions” to give advice on ventilation issues during this year’s hot summer and autumn weather, he has welcomed the more recent cold front, purely on pig welfare grounds.

“On some farms, with naturally-ventilated straw-based finishing houses, the hot weather resulted in an endless round of mucking out dirty bedding because the pigs’ dunging habits were reversed,” he explained. “This was because pigs were lying in the wetter, solid dunging passages to keep cool, and then dunging in the hotter, dry bedded area.

“Straw is a requirement for high-welfare contracts, of course. While this is good for the image of the pig industry, it is ironic that during the summer this is less welfare friendly and dirty pigs do not make a good impression. This is not often a problem with slatted buildings.”

Mr Miller, who works with ARM Buildings, added that there needs to be more research into this area.

“A number of farms have installed powered ventilation systems in an effort to improve the lying pattern but, in my experience, this has not been particularly successful,” he said.

“It may be that the use of less bedding in the summer, allowing pigs to lie on the cooler concrete, would help but this may not be viewed favourably by the inspectors. It also only takes one pig to dung in the wrong place for the problem to start.”

One solution that has worked on some farms has been the use of low-volume ventilation through polythene tubes, suspended over the lying area. These direct a gentle, but cooling draught down on the pigs so that they can lie and sleep in comfort. They are relatively inexpensive, can be adapted to most layouts and are normally operated by a single fan per tube.

“With the drive to more welfare-friendly systems and the growth in purpose-built straw-based system houses, this is not an issue that will go away,” said Mr Miller.

“There is nothing more demoralising for a stockperson than a back-breaking daily routine of manually scraping out a dirty bed, so more work needs to be done on factors influencing dunging patterns on straw-based buildings to allow pigs to remain clean.”

Headline image shows how low-volume ventilation via perforated polythene tubes can help maintain correct dunging patterns in straw-based buildings during hot weather

The company is now able to carry an extra 5,000 m2 of product which it says offers “substantial benefits in terms of strength and hygiene over many traditional materials”.

Quality Equipment is the main UK distributor for Paneltim and has specialist cutting and welding equipment, enabling it to supply panels to individual requirements where non-standard sizes are necessary.

Headline image shows Quality Equipment’s Henry Stark in the new store at the company’s Woolpit, Suffolk, base

According to ARM Buildings, it costs an average of about £1.34 a sow per week in winter, a figure which rises to £1.50 in the summer.

The cost of ventilation nearly triples from 12p in winter to 34p per sow per week in the summer, revealed the company, more than offsetting the fact that lighting usage increases during the winter months.

“We would have expected farrowing houses to cost more to run in the winter,” said ARM’s environmental specialist, Tim Miller. “However, well-insulated modern buildings are very heat-efficient during the winter. In summer, in contrast, excess heat has to be removed if sows are to retain their appetites and milk well.”

ARM has been fitting data loggers as standard to its pig buildings since 2008, which is why the company now has such detailed information available.

“Pig farmers obviously need to know what their costs are and where they are incurred,” said Mr Miller. “Monitoring can also give an early warning of any problems.

“On one farm, for example, we found costs increased to £3.50 a sow per week.  This was due to heat lamps being left on full for two weeks after farrowing, in addition to the normal heat pads.”

“Many units now have alarm systems to safeguard the welfare of their pigs and these are primarily used to detect situations when the temperature rises if the ventilation fails,” said ARM Buildings’ environmental specialist, Tim Miller (pictured above).

“During the recent heat-wave, I have been inundated with phone calls from pig farmers asking how to turn their alarms off. They are usually set at 32 degrees C, but this temperature has been exceeded during the latest hot spell, with some house temperatures even exceeding 38C.”

Mr Miller (pictured above) doesn’t advise turning the alarms off. Instead, one solution used by many producers is to temporarily reset the alarm at a slightly higher level.

“However, it is very important not to forget to turn the setting down to the normal level when the hot spell subsides,” he added.

“Without air conditioning, of course, it is impossible to lower piggery temperatures below the ambient air temperature, so it is a question of good short-term management.”

“A well-managed and efficient working ventilation system will draw fresh air into a building and remove stale air, which will contain a proportion of microbes, dust, harmful gases and water vapour,” said AHDB Pork’s environment and building research coordinator, Susan Rabbich.

“This process helps to improve the overall housed environment for pigs and a system that is effectively circulating air can have a positive impact on health and performance which, ultimately, can help improve the bottom line.”

The new guide can be downloaded from the board’s website. Hard copies are also available on request.

“What’s really nice (about the new guide) is that it features producer case studies,” said Ms Rabbich. “Farmers can therefore relate to the problems other producers have encountered and learn how to overcome them.”

Access download details

The French system, chosen by Carden Livestock at Pitcable, Inverurie, to stabilise the incoming air temperature for its new eight-room grower building, draws air into each room through vertical delivery ducts. This means there is no draught at pig level with the extraction process operating below the slats for the efficient removal of contaminated air.

Given that the fitting of the system’s French I-TEK control process would normally have needed installation by French contractors, however, it was decided to seek a more local solution.

I-TEK therefore asked UK-based Farmex to write a new operating programme, using the company’s Dicam system. Farmex already had equipment operating within the Pitcable unit.

“Farmers like the fact that they can use a control system with which they are familiar to regulate the latest developments in ventilation technology,” said Farmex’ Scottish dealer, James Buckingham, adding that since the programme change a reduction in power consumption “is expected”.

In addition, Farmex has now said that it is making the new control system generally available to “marry-in” with other I-TEK installations.

The Pitcable grower house holds a total of 304 pigs, ranging from 7 kg to 40 kg. The house is part of a 570-sow farrow-to-finish unit owned by Patrick Stephen and was put up to replace an old grower house as this was seen to be an area where growth was being checked.

Headline image shows Pitcable unit manager Wayne Ducker (left) with James Buckingham, Farmex dealer for Scotland.

The Suffolk-based buildings company, Quality Equipment, has reported a “steady growth in demand” for this type of housing.

“In the last year alone we have constructed 14,000 new (straw-based) pig places and kitted-out a further 10,000, providing enough capacity to produce over 50,000 pigs a year,” said the company. “In addition, we’ve carried out numerous conversions of cattle and poultry sheds to straw-based systems.”

QE’s construction manager, Aidan Hubbard, said that pigs reared under these conditions can fetch a premium, driven by a growth in demand from supermarkets for pigs reared under outdoor and welfare-friendly systems.

“Straw-based systems are often seen as labour-intensive, but with push-through dung passages and automatic feeding, this doesn’t need to be the case,” said QE.

“Straw also allows pigs to express some of their natural behavioural instincts, a factor which is seen as a sales benefit of British pork produced under this system.”