At Rubenlund Farm, a Danish pig farm, production manager Nikolaj Kjellerup and his team are well ahead with their preparations. He explains how they’re tackling the task.

During 2026, 2027 and 2028, the number of pigs with intact tails will double every year and end at 4 million pigs. This is the objective of the Danish Agriculture & Food Council’s Pig Sector, which got underway with the project United Around Intact Tails, a compensation scheme whereby pig producers are compensated for the additional costs involved in producing pigs with intact tails. Read more about the initiative here: Compensation will mean more pigs get to keep a curl in their tail

For those farmers who have signed up to the scheme, the preparatory work leading up to January 1 has now begun. Among them is Nikolaj Kjellerup, production manager at Rubenlund Farm.

With 1,900 sows, Rubenlund Farm sends around 65,000 pigs for slaughter per year.  When Nikolaj took over as farm manager 18 months ago, around 20 per cent of the pigs were already produced with intact tails. The farm, therefore, had a strong base of experience to draw on, and Nikolaj was in no doubt that they should sign up to the United Around Intact Tails project.

”It was an obvious decision for us to submit a bid and have the chance to receive compensation. My calculations showed that we could cover the expected and estimated costs while playing our part in ending the old and outdated practice of tail docking,” explains Nikolaj.

”Preparatory work is crucial”

In Nikolaj Kjellerup’s opinion, thorough preparations are crucial when it comes to producing pigs with intact tails. And this basically comes down to ensuring that the pigs’ basic needs are fulfilled.

”A key factor is to ensure that the pigs have access to plenty of water, good ventilation and the right amount of feed. This may sound simple, but it requires regular supervision to ensure that the pigs are neither too hot, too cold or lack fluid,” he explains.

Rubenlund Farm has also invested in straw bundles instead of wooden enrichment sticks. They have also decided to keep the wooden sticks as a backup should tail biting issues arise to provide the pigs with additional enrichment material.  

To reduce the risk of tail biting and ensure optimum conditions, the farm has also boosted monitoring.

”We monitor the pigs twice daily and pay extra attention to feed, water, the pigs’ behaviour and any tail biting so that we can take action if needed. This requires more people, but it’s necessary if we are to safeguard animal welfare, says Nikolaj.

”We need a change in culture”

In Nikolaj Kjellerup’s view, it’s not a question of whether we should produce pigs with intact tails, but how we do it.   

”Tail docking is fundamentally a cultural practice. It’s something we do because we’ve always done it. Therefore we need a change of culture and the compensation scheme is an important step in the right direction,” he says.

It will require both determination and flexibility for the transition to succeed, he says. It’s important to be ready to change working procedures and invest time and resources in new solutions.

”Instead of saying ’this can’t be done, we should ask ourselves, ’What will it take,” he emphasises.

The United Around Intact Tails project builds on a new model whereby from 1 January 2026, all pig producers will have to pay a slightly higher levy which will be allocated to those producers who can prove that they do not tail dock. The funds will be used to offset the cost of the additional measures required to produce pigs with intact tails.  

The scheme is in line with Vision 2050 for Danish pig production backed by the Danish Agriculture & Food Council’s Pig Sector. The aim is to double the number of pigs with intact tails in 2026, 2027 and 2028 so that the final total hits four million.