Everett Forkner

The same morning a concrete crew was arriving to work on a new nursery at Truline® Genetics, senior partner Everett Forkner was hurriedly laying out a plan to eliminate nurseries altogether at the Richards, MO, seedstock operation.

Forkner assembled his management team including his wife, Ruby; two sons, Mike and Steve, production managers Chris Hendren and Steve McNorton; and the operation's cropping manager, son-in-law Travis Beisly — on that March 1997 morning after an idea suddenly gelled the previous afternoon.

For weeks, Everett had been mulling over ways to convert the operation's four-stage, all-in/all-out system into wean-to-finish. After a fire ravaged one of their nurseries, the Forkner team had temporarily weaned into adapted finishing barns. However, Everett had just about convinced himself that wean-to-finish was not a permanent option for flowing pigs from their nucleus breeding sow herd.

Like many operations, the flow pattern had been devised over several years, with several sites, including contract finishers. The site where the fire had occurred also had an older farrowing building, a grower unit and several finishers. There were already plans in the works to convert those buildings into nurseries. In addition, the operation had made the decision to build two new 1,000-head finishers. At first, what seemed most logical and economical was to rebuild the burned-down nursery and continue with the conversion plans in order to create a large nursery complex.

Idea to Incorporate Wean-to-finish

Then came Everett's idea flash: Why not build two new wean-to-finish barns instead of the planned, traditional finishers? And instead of creating the nursery complex, use the earmarked remodeling money and insurance payment for a third wean-to-finish barn, which Everett estimated would cover about two-thirds of the cost. Late into the evening, he scratched out a plan and budget for the new idea, and by 9 o'clock the next morning, the team had made the decision.

The operation is now in the process of switching the entire flow over to wean-to-finish. Three 1,000-head wean-to-finish barns have been built, each with three rooms with center alleyways and 12 pens. Each pen houses 25-28 pigs. Two weeks' production fully loads one room.

Because the buildings are carved into three rooms, the Forkners opted for power-ventilation and forced-air heating. Heat lamps provide added zone heating over comfort mats, which are used for two to three weeks after entry. Flooring is total concrete slats.

Everett says Farmweld Jumbo Feeders are working well for small and large pigs. "They really do the job of what's required for wean-to-finish." He says he's also been impressed with how little feeder adjustment is needed. "They are virtually maintenance-free," he says.

Sold on Farmweld DRIK-0-MAT®

Initially, the Forkners experimented with watering options. The first two buildings were designed with one Farmweld DRIK-0-MAT® Water Cup per pen and one swinging-type waterer. However, Everett says he noticed that the pigs "definitely preferred drinking from the cup." He says he was also impressed with university results demonstrating water savings with the cup versus the swinging-type waterer. He also noticed significant wetness on the slats around the swinging-type waterers compared to minimal wetness around the cups. After considering those factors, the Forkners chose to design the third wean-to-finish building with two cups per pen and no swinging-type waterers.

Everett says he expects wean-to-finish not only to cut the labor and expense of moving pigs and powerwashing, but to also improve overall growth performance and the accuracy of genetic selection in the Truline breeding program. He believes that by eliminating the stress of co-mingling and moving, health will improve and growth will become more consistent from batch to batch. "My personal opinion is that wean-to-finish will be a big enhancement for greater accuracy in our performance evaluation and genetic selection."