The unit
Breeding, rearing and finishing, in one place.
760 sows, loose housing, a feed mill of our own, and a biosecurity routine that visitors notice before they notice anything else.
Home / The unit
Built up over twenty years, one shed at a time.
Kilfilum started trading in 2006 and the unit at Spancill Hill has been rebuilt and extended across the years since. What was a smaller piggery is now a fully integrated one: breeding, rearing and finishing on the same farm, with the buildings, the feeding and the climate control all modernised along the way.
“I would have guys call in here that wouldn't have been on a pig farm before, and they are just amazed by how clean it is.”
Colm Ryan
Kilfilum Ltd, Spancill Hill
Four systems that decide how a pig grows.
Get the housing, the climate and the ration right and the herd looks after itself. Get any one of them wrong and no amount of paperwork will save the batch.
Housing
Loose-housed sows, in groups.
Sows are kept in groups with room to lie down together, on slats designed for comfort and drainage, with solid, non-slip surfaces where they need them. No tethers, no sow stalls. Housing is built and maintained to be safe, hygienic and easy to clean, because that is what keeps both the animals and the people working in it healthy.
Climate
Ventilation that never sleeps.
Air is controlled to hold temperature and keep gases down. Mechanically ventilated houses carry alarms and a fail-safe backup supply, tested on a schedule and recorded.
Feeding
A ration we control from the first load.
We buy meal in from several suppliers and mill it ourselves, so the specification is ours to set and to change. Feed is kept readily available to lift intake, and the ration is judged on how it performs across the whole herd, not on how it looks in one pen. It is also the largest single cost in the business, which is exactly why it gets the most attention.
Welfare and housing
The rules set the floor. The routine sits above it.
EU welfare legislation changed how pigs are housed across Ireland, and the improvements of the last two decades are visible in the buildings rather than in a policy document. Here is what that means in practice.
Group pens
Sow housing
Sows are kept in groups with space to move and lie down together, rather than confined in stalls or tied.
8 hours
Continuous daylight
Lighting must let pigs express natural investigative behaviour for at least eight continuous hours every day, with inspection light available at any time.
Monthly
Standby power test
Every pig unit has to carry a backup power supply, and it must be tested and the test recorded, because a ventilation failure is an animal welfare emergency.
7 days
Before farrowing
Sows go into farrowing accommodation no more than a week before they are due, and pre-weaning piglets get a dry, thermally comfortable lying area.
Roughly two thirds of the cost of a pig comes out of the feed trough.
On Teagasc's cost analysis of recorded herds, feed runs at about 126 cent per kilo of dead weight against a total production cost near 186 cent. Nothing else in the system comes close, which is why we buy meal in from several suppliers and grind and mix it on the farm.
Owning the mill means the formulation is not a guess made by somebody else. It also means we can watch intake and feed conversion across the herd and change the ration when the numbers say so.
Biosecurity is the cheapest medicine there is.
A closed herd is the single biggest advantage of running an integrated unit. Everything below exists to keep it closed.
A closed herd, with no bought-in animals
Pigs are born and reared on the same farm. Because none are bought in and none come back from other units, there is no route for a new disease to walk in the gate on four legs.
It also removes travel stress entirely, and it makes the records straightforward, because every pig on site came from a sow standing in the same building.
What a visit involves
Nobody walks into a pig house in their own clothes. Visitors sign in, change or cover up on arrival, and use the boots and overalls provided. Every entry to the housing is logged, and the log is not decoration: it is the first thing an auditor or a vet will ask for.
We are glad to show people the unit, including buyers and anyone considering a career in the sector. Arranged ahead, the visit is straightforward. Please do not turn up at a house door unannounced.
Veterinary oversight and the annual assessments
The herd works under a named attending veterinary practitioner and a written Health and Welfare Plan. Tail biting and biosecurity are each assessed once a year using validated systems, and any recommendation that comes out of those assessments is recorded and acted on.
Responsible use of antibiotics
Responsible-use training is completed through the Bord Bia farmer portal, prescribing is handled by the herd's vet, and usage is visible to the Department of Agriculture through the national antibiotic database. Healthy pigs are reared by management, not by routine medication.
Cleaning, disinfection and between batches
Houses are cleaned and disinfected between batches, contact surfaces are kept smooth and easy to wash, and manure is held well below slat level. Rodent and vermin control is routine, and the buildings are built to be proof against both.
Records, audits and quality assurance
Kilfilum is certified under the Bord Bia Pigmeat Quality Assurance Scheme, which is independently audited on an 18 month cycle and can be audited unannounced. The paperwork is heavy. It is also the reason a factory can buy our pigs with confidence, so it gets done properly.
Scale and sustainability
Pigs account for 7% of Ireland's agricultural output.
The sector is small, intensive, export-driven and under real pressure to reduce its environmental footprint. Those are the numbers it is working against.
7 %
Of Gross Agricultural Output
Third sector after milk and beef
3.46 kg
Feed per kilo of pig meat
Down from 3.66 to 3.79 a decade ago
100 %
Slurry spread by LESS
Low emission slurry spreading on recorded farms
8,000+
People employed
Farms, processing, feed, haulage and services
Sources: Teagasc Pig Road Map 2030 and Teagasc National Pig Herd Performance Report 2025. Slurry figures relate to recorded farms applying slurry by low emission slurry spreading equipment.
Want to talk about supply, or about seeing the unit?
We deal directly with factories, feed suppliers and anyone seriously considering a career in pig production. Send a note and we will come back to you.