The Rural Voice, 1995-06, Page 22hen the weather heats up,
Ben Hogervorst doesn't
worry about the ventilation
system for his 400 -hog
finishing operation. Fresh air is never
a problem for pigs in his outdoor
facility.
Hogervorst has been promoting
the idea of raising pigs outdoors now
for more than two years. There are
plenty of skeptics, he admits, but he
has built a research facility near
Lucknow to show people that this is
an economical alternative for hog
production in these times when profit
margins are slim.
Hogervorst, who runs a farm
supply business in Lucknow, first
became interested in the outdoor
hogs after reading an article in
Country Guide magazine about a
Fergus -area farmer who had
imported two shelters from a U.S.
company. He visited the farmer and
was impressed, then contacted the
U.S. supplier and arranged to become
the dealer for Ontario.
But would the shelters, called
Econo-Shelters, work in Ontario's
conditions, particularly the deep
snow and wintery blasts off Lake
Huron? Hogervorst, a University of
Guelph graduate, decided to set up a
reasearch facility on his own farm,
recording the growth data so he could
18 THE RURAL VOICE
THE
OUTDOOR
OPTION
Outdoor shelters could
provide low-cost
alternative for hog housing
By Keith Roulston
give first hand information to
potential customers.
The facility is a much more
permanent set-up than other outdoor
operations such as tarpaulin -topped
Bio -Tech shelters or Cover-ups.
Unlike some of these which have
sand floors and deep straw bedding,
Hogervorst's metal mini-quonset
huts are set up on a two -foot cement
wall with a cement pad both inside
the building and in the outside yard.
He has a recessed, wide alley along
the front of the pens which doubles
as an area for the pigs to drop their
manure for easy scraping, and as a
moving aisle to take pigs out for
weighing or shipping.
Good weather and bad, Ben
Hogervorst's pigs spend their days
outside.
Originally this was a centre aisle
between two rows of shelters, one
facing east and one facing west. "It
looked great on paper," Hogervorst
says but a winter's experience
convinced him that the west -facing
shelters were not practical. The
shelters should face east or south or
any degree in between, he says. This
allows the west wall to break the
wind in winter while the open end is
in the calm away from prevailing
winds. "Snow is not an issue as long
as there is a snow fence to take the
snow out of the air and keep it from
drifting into the pens," he says.
Hogervorst sprayed insulation on
the outside of the wall to seal the
joint between the metal and the
cement and prevent drafts. "The idea
is to give the pigs a warm dry living -
room while they have an outdoor
bathroom and kitchen," he says.
Since his location required a good
deal of fill, insulation was the
answer, but for people who have a
more level area, he recommends
banking earth up to the top of the
wall to seal the crack.
In summer, doors on the back of
the shelters can be opened to allow
more air circulation. Heavy black