Winter farrowing environment is a delight for Iowa farmers sows TriState Neighbor

We farrow out on the pasture until winter when we bring the pigs in he said. We ve been providing hogs for the Niman Ranch program since so we need to have free stall pens. We can t use farrowing crates and we need to give the sows and pigs room to roam. Two renovated barns and the greenhouse are on Wilson s farmstead. The other facility using the Swedish system is located nearby at his brother Colin s home. In most years Wilson moves sows into the winter farrowing facilities in December. This year he and his son Torray already have farrowed pigs indoors. Usually from December to March we are indoors Wilson said. The renovated barns have an open area for sows and pigs to move around. Wilson built farrowing pens inside the barns but sows are able to move freely throughout the structure. Watering systems are indoors while sows also have the option to go outside. Heat is provided through an LP forced air furnace Wilson says. You don t have to have the tempe! rature very high just enough to provide some warmth he said. In the greenhouse an LP generated infrared heater is used. Very little supplemental heat is provided in the deep bedded system. The greenhouse was built in and originally was intended for lambing. Wilson used it one year for that purpose and has been using it for farrowing ever since. We put the summer farrowing huts inside and we really only need to provide heat from about p. Pigs will stay in there six to seven weeks like they do in the other facilities. Sows are brought into the greenhouse two days before they are due to farrow Wilson says. The huts have about inches of straw in them. Buildings are cleaned after each farrowing to help reduce biosecurity risk Wilson says. Farrowing boxes are used in the deep bedded facility which was built in . Eventually the sides and front of the boxes are removed allowing sows and pigs to roam the structure. In fact many of these programs will not accept new growe! rs unless they agree to farrow in the winter. If producers are going to farrow in the winter Honeyman says they have to go indoors. He says the type of facility doesn t matter as long as it is protected from the outside elements. You need to keep the piglets warm dry and draft free Honeyman said. You can have the temperature degrees and less and most piglets should be able to handle it he said. He says using zone heating is beneficial to the pigs. Most producers will use straw for bedding because of its texture and its absorbency he says. Buildings also need to be ventilated Honeyman adds. The more you insulate and tighten a building you are going to add humidity. Honeyman says producers who use this type of system may face higher costs of production. Wilson says his goal is to wean between eight and nine pigs per litter. We tinker with genetics using both A. and natural mating Wilson said. You d always like to have a few more pigs and we re working on it. Biosecurity is also a concern. Wilson has a closed herd for the most part! with new genetics introduced through artificial insemination. Wilson says there is more labor involved in his program but believes the benefits far outweigh any negatives. I don t think we would change anything Wilson said.

Source: www.tristateneighbor.com/articles/2007/11/12/tri_state_news/top_stories/news23.txt

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