The Rural Voice, 1998-01, Page 23The pigs seem to be very contented in
scrapes all the manure down to a 24
by 94 -foot covered storage area at the
north end of the barn. A minimal
amount of manual scraping is done to
put all soiled straw and sloppy
manure into the alley before
scraping.
One of the many things they're
still learning is whether or not the
manuring patterns will change from
winter to summer. Most pigs had
been following the expected pattern
in the barn's early days but one pen
had been manuring along one side
instead of at the end.
While many farmers might be
concerned about the scraping, Jack
says it's a management tool. While
he's working in the pen he's better
able to keep an eye on Ole health of
the pigs and mark any that should be
isolated, he says.
Not that labour isn't a concern for
the couple. While they planned for
their grower -finisher operation. "We
didn't want something that would
take us four hours a day more," Jack
says. With the bam one-third full, he
has been spending an hour a day or
Tess in the barn. He estimates that
when the barn is full he might spend
one and a half to two hours a day in
the finishing bam.
To reduce the amount of liquid,
they use a popular new style of
feeder that provides dry feed on one
level and water below. It makes
much more efficient use of water
than nipple waterers. Their water
meter showed the pigs had taken in
7000 gallons by the end of
November. Because they didn't
know how much liquid would run out
of the manure stacked in the covered
their surroundings in the bright new barn.
storage, they installed a 1,000 gallon
septic tank to catch runoff. The tank
will be pumped out as needed and the
liquid is added to the larger liquid
manure tank at the other barn. After a
month, the septic tank still wasn't
full.
"It doesn't look like we'll have a
lot of liquid," Jack says.
"In a year we'll know a lot more,"
Marg adds.
They expect to have to clean out
the storage area twice a year.
They'll spread it on their 180 -
acre cash -crop operation. Jack feels
dry manure is better for the land.
The couple have been leaders in
no -till farming, experimenting with
ridge -till planting as early as 1983.
No -till has helped build up the
organic material in the soil so that
even the liquid manure from their
farrowing barn is soaked up well, he
says. Solid manure should improve
the organic content even further.
Wheat has always been a part of
their corn, soybean, cereals rotation,
with wheat making up about 40 acres
of that. In the past, Jack sold the
wheat straw to a neighbour but now
they'll likely use most of it
themselves. They'll only be able to
produce about half their own -
expanded feed needs from the farm.
When Marg says they stepped off
the beaten path with this barn, she
could certainly have been describing
the problems in designing and
building the barn. OMAFRA
engineers could offer little advice,
since most of their experience is with
slatted -floor barns. An article on a
barn in the United Kingdom helped
them learn more about similar barns
NEW PRODUCTS
1. Plastic Rolls 1/8 inch for bam
lining.
Sizes 2 feet x 100 feet
3 feet x 100 feet
4 feet x 100 feet
2. Galvanized Flat Bar.
Supports for plastic flooring.
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3. Pre -Galvanized Flat Top Woven
Wire Flooring
Weaner Flooring
Opening 3/8 x 2 inches long
1/4 inch material weight 4.3 lbs.
per square foot.
Farrowing,
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Opening 3/8 x 2 inches long
5/16 material weight 5.8 lbs.
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4. White Extruded Plastic Sheeting.
Std. sizes # 4 feet wide, 8 feet,
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3/32,1/8, 3/16, 7/32,1/4, 3/8, ot
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(519) 524-2082 • FAX (519) 524-1091
z
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JANUARY 1998 19