The Rural Voice, 1993-07, Page 26Home, home
in the shelter
Kincardine farmer finds you
don't have to have an expensive
building to raise pigs -
By Keith Roulston
4
Anyone driving up the
winding laneway of
Mark Stewart's
Kincardine -arca farm
can see this is a man
with a strong bcnt of curiosity, so the
fact that he raises pigs in what
amounts to a large tent comes as no
surprise.
A sign at the road advertises
Mark's hobby of keeping Perchcron
draft horses. In pens at a bend in the
lane arc a few head of fallow deer,
while ponies romp on the other side
of the lane. In the yard Guinea Hens
roam, keeping down the insect
population and providing tasty meals
for the table come fall. Last
year his brother even raised
emu.
But what most pig farmers
come to see is the Biotech
shelter behind the barn that
houses 150 hogs, winter and
summer. After four years raising pigs
almost in the open air, Stewart's
experience is a source of curiosity for
farmers finding the prices of new
swine housing a forbidding prospect
given the volatility of pork prices.
With 15 years' experience operating
the swine operations of G. A. Stewart
Farms he can recommend the shelters
to others looking for ways to cut
costs in pork production.
The idea for raising pigs outside
under minimal shelter conditions
came when he attended a seminar
held by a feed dealer and heard Dr.
Cathy Templeton speak on the
experience of farmers in the West
raising pigs under such
circumstances. Comparing the cost of
adding a new barn or experimenting
with a Biotech shelter, he decided to
try something new.
Mark Stewart finds raising pigs in
outdoor shelters cheaper, healthier.
over a 15 -foot -high aluminum arch
frame. The arches are anchored by
railway ties buried to half their depth
in the ground. The tarpaulin is pulled
so tight it doesn't whip in the wind.
Around the edge of the building
Stewart installed a skirting of 2x6
inch pressure -treated planks. Inside
there is a 16 -foot cement pad at one
end that holds the feeders and energy -
free watering bowl. The rest of the
floor is made up of a one -foot deep
sand bed with a new six-inch sand
covering added each time the barn is
cleaned between fills. A divider is put
down the middle to make
the shelter into two pens.
Along with a feed tank
and auger system the
entire structure cost
$14,500. He figures a
barn would have cost
$26,000 then, more now with today's
lumber prices.
The shelter has been up for four
years now and Stewart says he sees
no reason the tarp shouldn't last
Shelters have been successfully
used in harsher western climate
22 THE RURAL VOICE
He built a 30x72 foot shelter (the
shelters come in 30 foot widths by
whatever length you want). The
shelter consists of a heavy-duty
woven fabric tarpaulin pulled tight