The Rural Voice, 2004-04, Page 22COMMERCIAL AND
AGRICULTURAL BUILDINGS
40 Wellington St., Clinton, ON NOM 11,0
ci f�A TELEPHONE 519-482-9666
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FAry1 aUIDHiS
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40x64
12' sidewalls with 6x6 pressure treated posts, 2
rows of 2x6 T&G splash boards, coloured steel
cladding & trim, pre-engineered trusses (max
50# GSL), 1-36" steel insulated entry door, 1
endwall 20x12 sliding door, 2-46x32 vinyl sliding
windows. (Not exactly as shown). Other sizes
available to price. Call Dave or Darren.
$14,695 plus tax
$3,995 plus tax
GARAGE
14x22
2x4 stud frame, pre-engineered trusses, vinyl siding.
aluminum fascia and soffit, 12x7 overhead door, 1-
46x32 vinyl sliding window, 20 -year shingles, 1-36"
entry door.
,Not exactly as shown). Other sizes available or
design your own. Call Dave or Darren for details.
MAR -SPAN
HOME BUILDING CENTRE
2 km :Forth of Drayton
1-800-318-0724 - 1-519-638-2420
18 THE RURAL VOICE
addition of medication if needed or
bagged premix.
Each of the six rooms has a
common area and separate feeding
area. Three one-way gates control the
entry of pigs into the feeding area,
although experience has shown that
two would likely be enough for the
same number of pigs. Pat suggests
one gate for every 150-200 animals
would be sufficient.
The barn uses an ad -Iib feeding
system with room for three pigs for
every foot of trough space. At times
the feeding area can be crowded,
Kim says, but not all pigs eat at every
feeding.
Some pigs tend to stay in the
feeding area to rest between feedings
but when the next feeding starts and
their pen -mates flood into the area
they gnerally get up and leave.
It doesn't take small pigs long to
figure out where to enter the feed
area and where to exit back to the
common area, Pat says. Within 12 to
24 hours they have the system down
pat, he says.
Aholding area for the sorting
scale is built into the room.
When small pigs are put into
the room the scale isn't there but they
follow the same routine that they'll
use later when the scale is moved
into the room.
The Louwagies have three scales
to use among the six rooms in the
barn, although one scale for each
room would be the ideal, Pat says.
They've been working with these
scales for two years and have fine-
tuned them so they're really happy
with the operation, Kim says.
They've found the automatic scales
just as accurate at the manual scale
they use on their home farm.
"One of the things we've learned
is the quieter a scale runs the better it
is," Pat adds, "because pigs do spook
easily and the older they get the more
resistant they are to learn something
new."
"We try to introduce the scale four
to six weeks after the pigs enter the
room," he explains. "It helps with the
training process. The gates are left
open so the pigs are free-flowing
through (the scale) until we actually
start sorting for market weight, which
is when we actually start operating
the sorters."
One of the lessons they learned in