The Rural Voice, 1998-04, Page 46Dave and Brenda Linton are
not followers, so it came
naturally that they chose not
to jump on the bandwagon headed
toward three -site hog production. It
was also natural that when they
wanted to build a new barn last
summer there was no turn -key
operation that suited their needs.
The Lintons operate a 100 -sow
farrow -to -finish operation on 370
acres of land near Brussels in Huron
County. Last summer, with the help
of local contractors, the family built a
new dry -sow barn, using a group
penning system for their sows. The
barn is designed to be people and
animal friendly while still
maintaining efficiency.
The result is a 40 by 100 foot,
naturally ventilated barn, set up
behind their normal farrowing and
finishing barns. Here sows are kept in
groups of 10 through most of their
pregnancy. Each of the 12 pens
extends across the entire width of the
barn, except for a feed and service
alley down the south side of the barn.
One end of the pen is used for
feeding while the other end is bedded
with straw for a sleeping area. The
centre of the pen, which is slightly
lower, is the dunging area. In this
section the pens are separated by
gates which can be closed to confine
the sows to one or the other end of
the pen. Then a tractor and scraper
can be driven through the barn to
quickly and efficiently clean out the
manure.
The barn is a result of a lot of
thinking and a lot of research into
alternatives in swine operations. The
impetus, Dave said recently, came at
a family Christmas five years ago.
Surrounded by non -farming relatives
he boldly stated that he wasn't going
to follow an industrialized model of
pig production but would choose
instead a people -friendly and pig -
friendly model. Still, he recalls,
during the next few years he wasn't
really changing his traditional
farrow -to -finish way of doing things
and family members pointed it out.
The change came when Dave and
Brenda went to the Potpourri du Porc
conference in Shakespeare in 1996
and heard Dr. Bernie Rollins speak.
Rollins, a professor at University of
Colorado and a friend of Temple
Grandin, urged pork producers at that
42 THE RURAL VOICE
The best of both worlds
The Linton family wanted something different so they
designed and built a dry -sow barn that is friendly to both
pigs and people, yet is not labour intensive
By Keith Roulston
Key to the Lintons'
solid manure dry sow
barn is the central
dunging area using a
system of gates which
allow easy drive-
through scraping
(above in the finished
building, at right, seen
during construction).
Natural ventilation
(bottom) allows for a
bright, outdoor -like
atmosphere in warmer
weather.