The Rural Voice, 1989-06, Page 24LOOK
BEFORE
YOU
LEAP
With careful planning,
a police officer makes
a successful transition
to farming and pork
production.
by Mary Lou Weiser -Hamilton
B
ill Findlay hasn't been a
pork producer for very long
— well under two years —
but he is quickly establishing himself
as one of Grey County's top farrow to
finish operators. He attributes much
of the success of his 40 -sow herd to
a combination of genetics, accurate
record-keeping, and a minimum -
disease environment.
Some people might call Findlay a
greenhorn city boy (he was born and
raised in Vancouver and spent 13
years as a police officer in British
Columbia), but Findlay, 38, spent 10
years planning his move to farming
before he and his wife Margaret pur-
chased their farm in the Dundalk area.
Plans to attend agricultural college
in Olds, Alberta were quashed when
Findlay learned there was a waiting
list of farmers' sons and daughters.
Taking the advice of the college staff,
he bought an 11 -acre parcel of land
in the Fraser Valley and raised pigs,
sheep, a few beef cattle, and some
chickens for seven years. "It was an
experiment to see how we'd like
farming," he recalls.
Pork producers Bill and Margaret Findlay — keeping accurate records.
Margaret is a farmer's daughter,
and Findlay's holidays were spent
working on the farm of his in-laws in
Elmvale, Ontario — to the annoyance
of his wife. He also took several adult
extension courses from a local college,
from swine production and welding to
land and financial management. Then,
during a visit to Ontario, the Findlays
looked at farms and found one they
liked. Findlay left the police force and
the family moved to Ontario.
Critical to making a good start was
the superior quality of Findlay's initial
herd of 35 York/Hampshire crossbred
and York purebred sows and three
purebred York and Hampshire boars,
purchased from Don Jack's SPF herd
at Venbrooke Farm nearby.
To maintain that edge, Findlay
tries to maintain a disease-free envir-
onment, although he doesn't do Cae-
sarean section on his sows. No one is
allowed in his bam and he uses a foot
bath and changes his clothes each time
he delivers a load of pigs to the
stockyard. He is close to the Dundalk
yard and usually makes two or three
trips with his pickup each Wednesday.
Findlay uses the batch farrowing
system. He runs four separate groups
of sows and attempts to have 10 sows
farrowing as close together as possi-
ble. Weaning the litters on the same
day enables him to empty the farrow-
ing and weaner rooms and wash them
down completely with a pressure hose
before disinfecting them. "Farrowing
is the time when newborns are most
susceptible to disease. When they're
born into that clean environment it
reduces the risk."
The farrowing and weaner areas
are located in separate, climatically
controlled rooms which Findlay built
in the bank barn. When he bought the
farm, he enlisted the help of OMAF
engineer David Trudell to develop a
ventilation system. At a cost of
$6,000 he added 14 fans, complete
with air bags, to the 8 that already
existed. The improvements have paid
off, Findlay says, particularly in the
farrowing and weaner rooms where
temperature is so critical.
Open sows and gilts are moved in
groups of four to a pen beside the
boar and, when they come in heat,
22 THE RURAL VOICE