On-farm incineration has become the standard answer to fallen stock for a lot of UK pig producers, and for good reason. Dealing with the animal on site the same day removes the wait for a collection, keeps vehicles off the land and takes one more route for disease off the table. It's also a requirement for anyone carrying the Red Tractor symbol, which means an incinerator on site is an essential piece of farm equipment for maintaining biosecurity and industry best practice.

The SB Sow has been one such evolution, designed purely on customer feedback received through exhibiting at trade shows and from our engineers who work side by side with the farmers installing, maintaining and servicing their machines. The SB has long been the right fit for pig farmers, but over the past few years the animals themselves have changed shape.

Twelve teats have traditionally been the accepted minimum for breeding sows, with 14 the practical average across most farms. Now, on many UK pig farms, sows are being selected for up to 18 teats, and as that becomes more common the average sow is getting longer with them.

We discovered this to be a growing shift in 2024 at the British Pig & Poultry Fair, where many farmers from across both sectors came to catch up with us and share their experiences of the industry, our machines and how well they suited their needs.

This was where we first heard about the sows getting longer, as several farmers were unsure whether their sows would fit a space that had always been enough.

So we went away and added that to our to do list. We started redesigning the machine in 2025 and in 2026 we returned to the show with a new machine, the SB Sow.

The SB Sow costs the same as the standard SB, and keeping it that way really mattered to us. Farmers have supported Addfield for more than 40 years, and it felt right to return that support by improving the machine rather than pushing customers up to a bigger, costlier model. Having an in-house technical team meant we could take farmer feedback straight from the show floor and turn it into a working redesign.

The SB Sow runs exactly like the standard SB and the rest of our agricultural range, with no change in operation for the farmer, and will handle up to 750kg a day, comfortably enough for a full sized adult sow. The difference is in the primary chamber, which now has a longer, narrower loading area to suit the longer animal, along with a repositioned and enlarged burner that directs heat exactly where it's needed most. The chamber gives the extra length sows need without stepping up to the larger TB, a machine that would have been more capacity than necessary for the small gain required, and at a noticeably higher price.

We have also launched our new Easy Open, Easy Close system, which improves the operational performance of the machine without breaking the bank. Hydraulic struts take the strain out of opening and closing the lid, creating a more comfortable experience for the operator. The system is now available on any top loading machine that we manufacture and can even be retrofitted to existing incinerators.

The first SB Sow off the line sold within two weeks of launch, a fast turnaround by the standards of this industry. It's now installed and running on a UK pig farm, with feedback so far entirely positive.

We are continuing to build more stock machines across some of our most popular models, so farmers making the same switch won't have to wait long for theirs.

If you're finding your machine no longer fits the animals you're breeding, Addfield can help. Please get in touch at sales@addfield.com or +44 (0)1543 571 280.

Although it is outlawed in the UK and many other countries, it is still legal in much of the US to dispose of fallen stock however the farmers want, and with around 1.88 million farms currently in the Country, the devastation could be huge.

When animals are buried, they don’t just go away, the waste can seep into the soil, contaminating the groundwater and land. It doesn’t just put your farm at risk, it can endanger your community and local wildlife like scavenger animals, potentially spreading the disease wider than locally. Outbreaks like BSE (Mad cow disease), Foot and Mouth, and Avian Flu can all be linked to poor disposal practices.

Open fires are also another option that may seem quick and easy but also have long-term affects to the environment and your land.

The hidden dangers of composting

So, what exactly is composting when it comes to fallen animals?

The term composting is usually associated with recycling organic waste into plants and soil to support healthy growth of crops. When its deceased livestock being composted, it’s a whole different story.

While still organic waste, fallen stock can carry diseases and bacteria’s that are highly infectious and scavenger animals eat or transport the waste, spreading the diseases.

During a show in 2026, and we were surprised to hear that farmers in the UK and Ireland suggested that they are still disposing of their waste in a similar manner. There is also the option of Maggot farms, however this is a more controlled version of composting that is controlled, is a common practice, but it still not ideal.

Watch this shocking video

https://youtu.be/fAzL-N9dUds

In this video, you can see security cameras show a farmer in the US disposing of many deceased chickens, and although we are not sure what these chickens died of, we cant rule out that they didn’t die of Avian Flu.

If this is the case, when you see the various amounts animals feasting on the remains, from birds who can spread disease as far as they can fly, to foxes, racoons and cats who can spread diseases to neighboring farms, infected their flock.

You can also see the farmer returning to the pile and walking through the waste, and possibly affecting his healthy, remaining chickens. The farmer may follow sanitary cleaning of his footwear and clothes, but it is not guaranteed that infections are still not present.

The aftermaths of the German Foot and Mouth outbreak

To put it into perspective in early 2025, Germany experienced a devastating Foot and Mouth outbreak on farms near berlin. Within weeks, a nationwide meat export ban was in place and took it’s toll. Although the crisis was contained within 5 months, the economic damage was already done, farmers lost income, markets were disrupted and consumer confidence took a hit.

A safer solution

The solution is simple, and it’s one that we have been preaching for over 40 years. Onsite incineration is the most effective and safest way to ensure disease doesn’t spread. Particularly Addfield agricultural incinerators burn at higher temperatures of 850°C / 1562°F which completely destroys pathogens. What’s left is clean ash that can be safely disposed of or even spread back on the land without risk.

If you thought about burying medical waste, it’s safe to assume you would think that the practice would be harmful to the environment and would be a very bad idea. You can probably picture medical waste being incinerated in a clean, safe environment. The same would go for animal waste.

When COVID 19 was ripe, and anxiety about our safety was high, if our waste was simply buried think of the outroar that would cause throughout the UK. We were fortunate enough to be able to incinerate the waste caused by COVID 19, however some developing countries could only resort to dumping the waste while waiting to dispose of, extending the risk of spreading COVID 19.

Learning from the past

Back in the 80s, burying infected waste was a common practice in the UK and took part in causing the Foot and Mouth outbreak that occurred and was the main reason why Addfield is here today, as it was during the 80s outbreak that the first Addfield incinerator was built! Since then, incineration with Addfield has become the trusted standards for most farmers, who want to stay safe and successful.

Discover Addfield agricultural incinerator range for your needs

Burying and composting might feel like the ‘easy’ option short term, but the risks to your farm, your animals and your community are too high and can cause complications in the long run. With modern solutions like Addfield incinerators that release no odours or smoke, you can handle animal waste safely efficiently and with piece of mind, knowing you’re protecting your livelihood. Make the right decision today and contact Addfield today to learn which solution is perfect for you.

While wood burners are not a modern invention, they are becoming increasingly popular again and can be found in many homes in the 21st century, either as a fireplace or a stove. Wood burners, just as the name implies, burns wood in order to generate heat, and the unit usually consists of just a combustion chamber and chimney.

If we travel back in time to when wood burning fires were at the centre of the home, with the whole family crowded around the stove to warm up and cook, you can imagine the smoke filling the room!

Shortly after, a stove/chamber was designed to hold the fire in the corner of the room, followed by the invention of the chimney, to vent the smoke out of the room.

Even today with modern upgrades, it has been recorded how bad a wood burner can be for the environment, with the emissions released from using them, especially if multiple houses are using them for hours on end to heat their homes or cook their food.

Incineration and cremation may sound similar to wood burning, as both include burning items in a combustion chamber at high temperatures, but that is where the similarity ends.

While incinerators and cremators may not be as old as wood burners, we still have many years of development that has led to the most environmentally sustainable technology designed, throughout the whole Addfield range.

Let’s take pet cremation for example. Pet cremation as a business has boomed immensely over the years with many industries diversifying their business to include pet and horse cremation services. Many businesses will install a pet cremator in residential areas or on their own land if available. When people hear the word ‘cremator’ they may be concerned about what the process is doing to the environment, especially if they live near where the cremator is installed. We are often approached by concerned residents, and we are able to put their minds at ease.

A typical wood burner is a fairly simple system. It consists of one chamber and a chimney with logs and other materials being thrown in and ignited at temperatures fluctuating from 360°C/680°F to a peak of around 600°C/1112°F. These temperatures are not hot enough to produce clean gases. The gases, smoke and odours produced during combustion are released directly into the atmosphere without any cleaning. This is why you will see smoke billowing from chimneys and smell the distinct odour that comes from it in some residential areas.

In comparison, all Addfield incinerators and cremators are purposely built to handle a whole range of waste types safely and environmentally friendly. The pet and agricultural range burn at temperatures as high as 800°C/1470°F in the primary chamber, some equipped with additional hot hearth technology, heating the chamber from above and below to ensure full cremation of the animal. Whilst our medical and more complex machines burn as high as 850°C/1562°F. These temperatures are high enough to release cleaner gases into the secondary chamber.

Not included on a wood burner, the secondary chamber acts as a filtration gas cleaning system, with temperatures reaching 980°C/1800°F for the pets and animal machines, 1100°C/2012°F on the medical side. A 2 second retention time in the secondary chamber is the time the flue gases take to travel through the secondary chamber to ensure complete cleaning.

The secondary chamber always reaches operational temperature before anything in the primary chamber starts to burn, so any gases released from the cremation or incineration are treated from the very start of the process. The machine will never start the burning process until it can safely clean the gases.

Where a wood burner is designed to released heat out of the chamber, it is quite the opposite for an Addfield machine. Each chamber is lined with an advanced brick refractory, our alumina infused fire brick holds and releases the heat back into the chamber, behind the brick we have two further layers made up of insulation brick and board, these layers block the heat from escaping meaning it can only go one way from the fire brick and that’s back into the chamber. This means no heat is lost from the chamber, completing the cremation using 40% less fuel and is significantly safer to operate compared to alternative solutions.

This technology is what makes Addfield machines smoke and odour free, the most you are likely to see coming out of the chimney is a faint heat shimmer, which is very miniscule compared to the amount of smoke from a wood burner.

Even with the latest regulations that came into effect in 2022, meaning that all wood burners had to meet certain environmental standards and guidelines, Addfield incinerators and cremators are proven significantly more environmentally friendly due to the added filtration of the secondary chamber and brick lined refractory.

Addfield has always prided itself on its accessibility and dedication so if you have any question on the real world impact of one of our machines in your neighbourhood, please feel free to reach out to us at sales@addfield.com

The first day focussed on the High Capacity and Waste to Energy approaches to sustainable waste incineration delivered by the team at Addfield Projects. The second day presented a number of exciting innovations coming to the world of pet cremation from AES that are launching this spring. Welcoming visitors from the 27th to 28th March the two days were an incredible success keeping both teams busy as visitors travelled internationally and nationally to see the future of waste management and cremation.

“This was a great opportunity for us to celebrate not only the opening of our new facility for Addfield Projects, that they only moved into a few months ago. This new site enables them to build these massive plants from start to finish all in one place which is a real boost to the business. It was also a great opportunity to invite and meet with so many new and expanding pet cremation businesses to show them the latest upgrades that we have been working on behind the scenes, and help them to choose the perfect cremator for their business needs. This was a really impressive turn out over both days and the two teams did a tremendous job putting the days together.” Derek Carr – Managing Director, Addfield.

Addfield has always prided itself on quality, continuously reinvesting to develop new and more sustainable approaches to thermal treatment that ultimately benefit the end user and the environment, no matter what industry they are in.

Having made incredible progress in the past decade, from a business and operational perspective achieving record growth in 2024 for both AES and Addfield Projects, it was agreed that there was no better time than the start of Spring to celebrate the future opportunities that lay ahead.

The feedback from the visitors reflected how seeing the facilities up close was incredibly useful when thinking of their own project.

Kicking off the first day, Addfield Projects exhibited a completed, high-capacity waste to energy facility ready to be tested before shipping to Guernsey to manage the islands general waste. Being able to take a tour around a completed facility is not an opportunity that comes up often and so attendees came from across the country from councils, consultants and private businesses. As large as it was the team are set to begin work on a machine two and a half times larger very soon. Visitors had the opportunity to speak with the many experts at Addfield Projects who will be designing and building their projects, and learned about previous installations that may be similar to their needs.

The second day, the team focussed on some of Addfield’s more compact solutions in comparison. Showcasing two new approaches to pet cremation. An industry achieving enormous growth in the past 5 years from private and individual businesses. Beginning with the newly redesigned PET200 one of the worlds most popular solutions for pet crematoriums displaying for the first time a number of updates to increase performance and operational comfort. Alongside that was the A50 IC 2 a four chambered pet cremator for the larger operator which in this instance was fitted for the first time with a number of additional options which can lead to an increase in throughput of more than 30% in operation. Attended by existing and start up customers some flying all the way from the Middle East for this opportunity to see what’s new.

This was a perfect way to welcome in Spring and the new financial year. The success of the events have reinforced the decision to continue to organise more in the future. It was great opportunity for the two companies to come together to share the celebration of the combined success over the years and commitment to providing the most robust, reliable and efficient incinerators and cremators. Dedicated to our customer values, the open days allowed Addfield to present several 1-2-1 sessions simultaneously ensuring every customer need and question was met – another reason why they say that Addfield is Simply Built Better.

Since 1982, Addfield has evolved hugely through dedication and teamwork, pushing itself to become global leaders in the sustainable waste management industry. The Addfield name can be found in more than 150 countries, showing the worldwide reach that the companies have reached.

For more information about Addfield Environmental Systems, visit www.addfield.com

To learn more about Addfield Projects, visit www.addfieldprojects.com