The Rural Voice, 1996-11, Page 20Following the leader
One of the first to adopt three -site
production, Acre T. Farms continues to set
the pace with new nursery barns
Story and photos by Keith Roulston
40
Joe Terpstra's Acre T Farms adopted three -site pork
production back in 1991. The system suited management
and herd health needs of his huge Huron County operation.
0 n one of the few beautiful clays of the early call, cars
and pickups lined the sides of the narrow concession
in Grey Township, southeast of Brussels. Township
residents, and pork farmers from a wider area, were
here to see the latest expansion project of Acre T. Farms
Ltd. — a huge nursery barn.
Actually, the barn the visitors are crowding through is
just half of the latest expansion. Across the concession and
down a piece is its twin. Each of the barns has eight rooms
capable of housing 50 weaner pigs in each of the 12 pens in
the room: a total of 4,800 pigs for each barn. The two new
nursery barns, added to the 4,500 in an existing nursery
barn, mean the family-owned company can house more
than 14,000 early -weaned pigs at one time.
For most of the people touring the barn this day, the size
16 THE RURAL VOICE
of the operation defies understanding. The new barns are
part of company that sends 80,000 hogs to market each
year, and sells 20,000 weaner pigs as well.
Besides looking at the computerized feeding system or
the plastic -panel penning and stainless steel hardware or
the liquid manure tank the size of the Grand Canyon, the
curious are here to see how one of the leaders in three -site
pork production is playing out this new production system.
Joe and Miriam Terpstra and their family began three -site
production back in 1991 when few people in Ontario knew
what it was. Joe says they were watching what the large
U.S. integrators were doing in separating the various
phases of production and it was attractive for their own
operation. The key was in disease control and staff
management, he said. In a large three -site operation, staff
can specialize which keeps them from moving from one
facility to another with the potential of carrying disease.
"It's something we've never regretted," says Miriam,
who heads the office• staff at Acre T., part of the total of 18
full and part-time employees, not including Joe and Miriam
themselves.
"It's been very beneficial for us for managing and for
health," Joe adds. "It's getting very close to our thinking
that it's the new way of maintaining a high -health herd."
Old attempts at high health herds were hard to maintain
over long periods, he says. With the three -site system, even
if you were to get a certain disease, there's plenty of
opportunity to close down one facility long enough to rid it
of the disease.
The two new nurseries are split down the middle with
four rooms on each side of a loading area. This allows
for an all -in, all-out system for one side of the barn at
a time. There's little downtime. By the time the rooms
can be cleaned out and disinfected, they're ready to receive
the next batch of pigs.
The new barns contain a computerized dry -feeding
system capable of creating a new ration each day for the
pigs as their their nutritional needs change with their age.
The pigs are fed six times a day, though the computer can
be programmed to feed them as many times as is desired.
Weaners enter the barn at 14-15 days of age from one of
the two farrowing operations, one 1200 -sow unit and one
2,000 -sow unit. They stay for 55 days. They're then
trucked off to one of four finishing units holding 4,000 pigs
each, or they're sold as weaners to other producers, or
chosen as breeding stock for their own farm. The whole
operation is integrated so that all young pigs, whether from
the nucleus herd or the multiplier unit, flow through the
same three -site process. Two people are assigned to run the
three nursery units.
Believe it or not, this whole operation has grown in only
14 years since Joe and Miriam began with 250 sows. Doing
things big in the Terpstra family is nothing new — other
members of the family have huge dairy operations — Joe's
just alone in the pork business among the family. "Years
ago Dad always had some pigs," he remembers. "My other
brothers didn't like pigs. I enjoyed cows and I enjoyed
pigs. It didn't make a difference to me."
The growth has come rapidly since the decision to adopt
three -site production in 1991. That year saw new facilities
added then a huge jump came in.1994 when a 39,000
square foot finishing barn was opened across the township