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.

Putting together a pig barn design is a long and detailed process for you as a producer. You have to weigh your different housing options and how each will affect your production. If you decide to build a barn with Electronic Sow Feeding equipment, it is important to know how the design of your system will affect your animals, your barn staff, and your everyday operations. Proper ESF design will improve efficiency and production while a poor pig barn design will result in a disastrous investment.

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.

Making the decision to remodel your existing sow housing barn may seem daunting. You will have to restructure your barn, buy new equipment, and train your pigs and barn staff on the new processes. We promise that making this decision is worth your time and investment, but we understand effort this transition takes. That is why we want to provide you with everything you need to know about a sow housing remodel before you make the decision.

It is an uncomfortable question to ask yourself, but do you know if your swine barn is designed to keep up with the pork industry trends in the next 20 years? There is no doubt that the industry has been changing rapidly over the past 20 years, and the next 20 years will likely keep the same pace. As a pork producer it is vital to stay up-to-date with the latest trends, especially in sow housing. Hog barn designs from 20 years ago are quickly becoming outdated, and it is time to start considering what you can do so the rest of the pork industry doesn't leave you behind.

Including tunnel ventilation in turkey finisher barn designs has become popular among poultry producers, but does it regulate temperature any better than natural or other mechanical poultry barn ventilation systems? We believe tunnel ventilation systems are more efficient and less costly, and our team has a wealth of experience designing and installing tunnel ventilation into turkey finishing houses. Read more on why you must include tunnel ventilation into your next turkey barn design.

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.

Even in the best-managed barns, one out of three sows is either over or under her ideal farrowing weight which of course affects her litter size and viability. These less productive sows cost the industry almost $30,000 for a group of 1,000 sows. The task before every pork producer is how to get their farrowing rates up and their costs down. The best way to do this is by incorporating state of the art sow weight monitoring into your electronic sow feeding systems.