Imagine touring a barn without infringing on biosecurity concerns. Now, imagine touring the barn from the comfort of your favorite chair, with your favorite snack and beverage at the ready. Too good to be true? Think again!

Background and the Basics

Over the years, New Standard has constructed countless tunnel ventilated barns and has engineered the remodels of many others. Truthfully, ventilation for livestock housing is part of the DNA of the New Standard Group as that is what we focused on in our early years. Things have changed a lot since that time and the Group has expanded greatly, yet ventilation engineering is still something we love to do and love to discuss.

We're involved in setting up more and more wireless systems in hog barns, new builds, and barn remodels alike. Now wifi is terrific with some planning and proper equipment. So how does it work? We spent some time with network pro Owen Gingerich who helped on our Honey Grove barn project, and New Standard's tech guru, Dwayne Morrow, to discuss the pros and cons and where wifi in barns stands in 2022. 

I was contacted a while ago by someone from the NCFAD, which if you are like me, you can be forgiven for not having a hot clue what that is. So I asked, and was told that The National Center for Foreign Animal Disease is part of CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) and is located in the Canadian Science Center for Human and Animal Health which also houses the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, MB. That should be enough governmental alphabet soup to make anyone turn and run the other way, but I decided that I would at least hear them out on what they required from me. 

New Standard Ag took on a renovation project located at Greenwald Colony, in Brokenhead, Manitoba, Canada.  The renovations started in early January 2020. Before renovations, it was servicing 1200 head of sow. The crew and the client worked to get the barn fully empty in March. Renovations were completed and filled with sows at the beginning of August 2021. This was a great example of the fine eye for detail, taking advantage of space, and utilizing the whole facility to its full potential.

What a time to be alive! This was given to Kevin by his mother. She found it while cleaning up the attic of the farmhouse (it’s the same house that his dad lived his entire life). This book was filled with goodies that can still be appreciated today.

A week ago, I put up a screenshot of what happens when you turn on cool cells for the first time. We saw a temperature drop of more than 7° F in a 15-minute window, which was excellent and certainly made Michael at Goldenview Colony happy. There is, however, so much more to cool cells, and understanding how to maximize their effectiveness can allow even more impressive results. 

The University of Alberta, a top 5 Canadian University, was ready to update their sow stall barn into an ESF. They contacted the team at New Standard to begin the design process. By the Spring of 2018, they had finalized the plans. They needed a design for 120 head of sow. The team was in contact with Jay Willis, the Research Stations Manager, Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences.

The retrofit project at Greenwald Colony is well underway. The Greenwald Colony is converting their traditional gestation stall barn into a loose sow housing set up with an electronic sow feeding systems (ESF). Kevin Kurbis (New Standard Ag) had designed the project and is facilitating the entire remodel. This video shows the barn (still mostly stalls) at the beginning of the transformation. Kevin explains the process and many of the steps we are going to see along the way. So without further delay - here's Kevin!

A completely new hog production facility upgrade has spanned the last four years on the Neudorf Colony in Crossfield, Alberta, Canada. "Kase from New Standard West has been great. From the first meeting, he heard what we were looking for and created a drawing that would meet our needs as well as creating a system that would help in achieving results," says Jerry, second hog manager at Neudorf Colony. The following case study outlines the project and what services and equipment New Standard Group provided in the barn build and construction and support and system implementation after the build.