The Rural Voice, 1982-05, Page 8Renovating an old- barn
by Sheila Gunby
After months of advance planning and
years of experience, Bill and Sharon
Nahrgang have a farrow to finish hog
operation that works.
And it works well.
Bill Nahrgang is president of the Pork
Congress being held in Stratford this
June. He and Sharon bought their 200 acre
farm near Listowel in 1978, for the express
purpose of raising pigs. Nahrgang, an
authority on barn equipment and ven-
tilation, worked for B & L Metal for nine
years selling pens and stabling to farmers.
As sales manager working with other
farmers, he could see their planning
mistakes and the changes they were
making to their operations. He learned a
lot. Meanwhile, Sharon, his wife. was
working in a bank.
Using their wealth of experience. they
decided to raise hogs themselves.
Rather than go into a line of machinery
and over their heads in debt, they rented
their 160 acres to another farmer at sixty
dollars an acre. They would buy feed for
their pigs.
Changes to the 40 x 70 two storey barn
were first on the agenda. Fat pigs had
been running loose in the barn. Earlier the
barn had been used for dairy cattle.
Everything was installed by the
Nahrgangs. Relatives. friends and the
former owner of the farm all pitched in to
help.
The whole south wall of the barn was
removed. A 24 x 70 two storey lean-to was
added. Feeder pigs would be housed in
the bottom part, breeding stock on the top.
The main barn floor was lowered one
foot for added head room. Steel posts and I
-beams were used throughout the barn.
The barn was out ten inches from corner to
corner so it had to be jacked up. The stone
foundation on three sides was good and
most of the main timbers were worth
saving.
Eighteen farrowing pens. in three rows
of six and eight 4 x 10 weaner pens.
holding sixteen pigs up to 60 pounds, w re
placed in one section of the main barn.
Another section holds 42 dry sow stalls,
three boar pens and two breeding pens.
There is a space between the slatted floor
in the dry sow stalls and the cement aisle.
This was one feature Nahrgang wanted in
his barn, so bulky manure could be pushed
PG. 6 THE RURAL VOICE/MAY 1982
BEFORE
AFTER
Bill Nahrgang, president of the Pork Congress says he cut his cost in half by
renovating his barn and doing the work himself.
into the gutter. Another feature he
planned was narrow alleyways to stop pigs
from turning around when they were
being moved.
In the lean-to for feeder pigs. Nahrgang
poured a gutter bottom. four to five feet
wide and a foot deep and covered it with
perforated metal slats. Pillars were
poured and I -beams placed on top.
Nahrgang welded tin pan to the I -beams
and poured seven inches of concrete on
top to torm the floor tor the second storey.
He says they poured thirty-seven meters
of concrete in one pour. Eight finishing
pens were installed upstairs. seven down.
Each pen is 8 x 21. with up to twenty-five
pigs in a pen. A narrow loading chute was
constructed rather than an elevator and it
is used for moving pigs to each floor or out
to a truck.
Nahrgang says the barn office was
originally planned to be a feeder pen.
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