You will have to have some other facilities to put sows and pigs in before weaning or a place to put the weaned pigs, and then you can use the same land and huts over again. Multiple farrowings of 2-3 or more can be produced in the pasture. Huts can be stacked in piles of 10 or 15.
HOG BARNS ELECTRICAL LABOR UNITS PORTABLE
Because of its very portable nature, people from a great distance can buy and move it to their operation or farm. The pasture system gives you the choice to stop production temporarily and farm the land with row crops, because of the low cost of equipment that would lay idle.If you want to quit for some reason (health, etc.) you can advertise this equipment and have it sold in a very short time. Your capital is not fixed to any piece of real estate! The sow is driven out of her hut and pigs are worked on inside. Pigs are handled only one time at about 7 days old. They all have to come to a central feed and water station in each plot. Manure is all spread automatically with very little odor (another problem) and you can sell your product with an average price of all producers in the pork industry. Therefore, in a pasture system you can eliminate the problems of heating, cooling, and waste handling. A one litter system gives you a larger percentage of capital income per year, over a sow that is kept for several farrowings. Gilts which are one year old at farrowing time can be sold as capital income (pending tax change). We prefer a one litter system, farrowing a gilt in the spring and saving gilts from that farrowing for the next spring. If you have rolling or well drained land, this will not be a problem. Placing huts on ridges will eliminate problems of heavy rain and extended wet conditions. This may be a little inconvenient for large field equipment, but will pay dividends in the farrowing rotation. We use a moldboard plow and make a head land and a dead furrow every 30-40 feet. On flat or poorly drained land, you should put in permanent ridges when you are plowing for the corn crop. The second year corn, to get the advantage of manure that was spread with no labor or equipment cost to you. The first year is sows farrowing on alfalfa. We have a 3 year rotation in the operation. Rollers can then be used on the next new litters, thus making the number of rollers a small percentage of the total huts, about 25%. Rollers should be removed as soon as pigs climb over, about 10-14 days. We use pig rollers in huts to keep pigs in 10-14 days, which keeps the pigs from mixing and also making the sow return to her hut. If not, you should have smaller plots to have pigs all farrowed in 7 days in the lot. This would be a maximum of 60 sows to a 4 acre plot if they all farrow within 7 days. In this concentration you will find that sows will make a nest in a hut rather than out in the open. This keeps weight loss of the sow to minimum. The large shelters should not be bedded as the sows may choose to farrow inside them instead.īecause of the green feed in the pasture, sows can be put on a self-feeder with a good ration without bulk and not have any farrowing problems. These large shelters can be moved to the next plot as soon as farrowing is done in this plot. A large shelter or two can be put in each plot to house sows before they farrow, keeping most farrowing huts clean and unused before the sow picks her own hut to farrow in. Fencing cost will vary from an electric wire all the way, to woven wire, which will be your choice. Huts should be bedded with 1/3 bale of straw. Huts, sows, feeders, and water should be put in the pasture a week before farrowing. No lagoons, exhaust fans, pits disinfecting, etc. Clean ground and green grass will eliminate almost all disease problems. We should also be concerned about people's health working in a confined environment with hogs. Government regulations restrict use of drugs, which are more necessary in confinement than pasture. Modern systems will continue to have problems with waste handling and increasing cost of energy. Pasture farrowing, being one of the oldest hog raising systems, can solve some of the problems brought on by high technology, namely pollution and energy.