Legislation around the world is requiring farmers to convert to loose sow housing. As we transition our hog barn designs, we are all learning from one another on how to make group housing more efficient and productive than gestation stall barns. Through our learning and dozens of conversions and new builds, we have found Nedap Electronic Sow Feeding equipment and proper gestation pen design to be the key factors in a successful loose sow housing facility.

This is often one of the first questions we are asked when talking through an ESF group gestation pen design. We completely understand the importance of this question because as producers, you have to monitor your overhead and operating costs closely in order to turn a profit. While there is significant importance behind this question, we challenge everyone to not only focus on the costs in your barn, but also the impact each aspect of your barn has on your production totals. Learn more on how to calculate the value each of your ESF stations add to your production.

Looking to replace your current hog pen panels or putting together a new hog barn design? You have some decisions to make! Take a look at these quick tips to help you through the decision making process.

Early group sow housing pens were known for high levels of aggression among gestating sows. This has been a counter argument on group gestation pens for years, but the amount of sow aggression depends completely on your pen design. To mitigate aggression, we must first know why the animals are aggressive, and then we can understand how to design a hog pen that reduces harmful behavior as much as possible. Hog pen designs have advanced since the early layouts in the 1980s, but there are still, and most likely will always be, aggressive sows in your herd. That is why it is vital to put your pens together with these four guidelines in mind.

Group sow housing barns are not new to the industry, but people are often not sure what it is like inside one of these hog barns. Most of us are familiar with gestation stall barns from either working in one or seeing images of them online and throughout different media. While there are many gestation stall sow housing facilities in North America, the industry is transitioning to loose housing facilities. Get a first hand account of operations inside these facilities by listening to what Janae Metzger from Pig Hill Farms has to say about working in an ESF barn.

Feed costs add up in sow housing, and they quickly take away from your bottom line. Luckily feeding technology has evolved in many ways over the past decade, making it easier to control these costs. By accurately targeting the amount of feed each sow receives, we can also improve her health throughout her life in the barn. Implementing Electronic Sow Feeding is the first step to start controlling feed, but Nedap has also introduced farrowing feeding systems to take it one step further. Automated feeding in your farrowing barn will help you reduce feed waste, keep sows healthy throughout their entire lives, and produce healthier, heavier piglets.

Installing new hog penning and gating systems into your existing or new swine barn has a large impact on the quality and efficiency of the barn. When deciding what products to install, you have to make tough decisions on the strength and lifespan of the panels, as well as the health risk each presents to your animals. After working with both PVC and polypropylene products, we strongly recommend Paneltim polypropylene hog pen panels. Read more on how these panels compare to traditional PVC panels when it comes to hygiene and biosecurity, product strength, and environmental friendliness.

The Pig Hill gilt development unit (GDU) was built in Lester, IA, and is in its second year of operation. As we take you on a tour through the facility, notice how it was built to supply an Electronic Sow Feeding barn. In this GDU, the young sows are able to learn about the new equipment on their own time.

When choosing hog penning and gating products to implement in your hog barn design, you may struggle knowing what product your barn will benefit from the most. What products are the strongest, last the longest, and are easy to work with? At New Standard, our staff has an abundance of experience working with hog penning and gating products, and our team has found that PanelTim plastic hog paneling is the top product on the market. Check out these 3 reasons we suggest including plastic hog penning in your hog barn design.