Cliff Jes (l), Chris Selthun and Peter Zimmerman pictured in Woodville Pork II's new farrowing room that’s equipped with Farmweld LaborSaver Feeders and Farmweld Farrowing Crates.

As genetic multipliers for Wakefield Pork, Woodville Pork is in the business of producing pigs. The success of that endeavor boils down to two things, according to partner Peter Zimmerman. “We need to ensure the sows are bred and once the pigs are born, we want the least amount of death loss possible,” says Peter, who operates with his brother, Paul, and cousin, Cliff Jes.

When the Zimmermans and Jes started drafting plans for Woodville Pork II, a new 2,400-head sow unit to complement their existing facility, they had very specific goals. One was to streamline the flow of animals through the barns at the new Waseca, MN, operation. Another was to improve how sows and pigs interacted with equipment such as feeders, flooring, crates and stalls. Woodville’s partners also wanted to offer a more enjoyable, success-oriented place to work.

Due to a shortage of experienced farm workers, Woodville -- like many swine farms today -- often hires people with little or no animal husbandry experience. On the gestation and breeding side of the operation, Peter says it was critical to design a facility that allowed efforts to focus on heat detection and other primary breeding tasks, rather than extraneous tasks that bogged down the process. “We asked ourselves, 'How can we make it is as simple as possible to get the sows bred?'” says Peter.

Woodville relied on their consultants at the Swine Vet Center, Inc. (SVC), St. Peter, MN, for insights in designing the breeding-gestation facilities to maximize performance and streamline work efforts. “They know what works in our operation and what doesn’t,” says Peter. “Plus they see a lot more farms than we do.”

The SVC veterinarians stressed the importance of providing sows with good nose-to-nose contact with boars prior, during and just after mating. “If the sow doesn’t want to stand nose-to-nose to the boar, she’s probably not in heat,” says Dr. Darwin Reicks, one of Woodville’s primary consultants. Click here to see the related article by Dr. Reicks.

Woodville turned to Farmweld to work out the details for room layouts and provide equipment for both the gestation and farrowing barns. Frank Brummer, Farmweld’s owner and president, suggested heavy-duty, overhead arches to stabilize the breeding pens.

			Woodville Pork II Manager Chris Selthun says that Farmweld LaborSaver Sow Feeders save time and ensure sows have feed when they want it.

“That is an area that gets a lot of traffic,” says Brummer. “Overhead reinforcement bars on breeding gates offer a great deal of support for added longevity.”

Farmweld also recommended a dual quick-latch for breeding pen gates in order to make pens as user-friendly as possible. The quick-latches, which are mounted on center poles between two-way-opening gates, eliminate pull-pins. Pull-pins can be easily dropped or misplaced and can be difficult to insert if gates get bumped or shifted out of alignment.

“With the quick-latch, you can walk up and lift one finger and open the gate,” says Dr. Reicks. “That will save the entire crew time each day.”

Farrowing Rooms Feature Even More User-Friendly Features

Peter and his partners also scrutinized the existing far-rowing operation to evaluate which tasks could be simplified. “We want a simple, repetitive model so that someone coming in can pick it up quickly,” he says. They concluded that feeding sows by hand was taking lots of time and it required constant supervision to assure sows were being fed for maximum performance.

			Farmweld Farrowing Crates (shown here with bow bars) are adjustable to fit sows of various sizes.

The Zimmermans and Jes selected Farmweld LaborSaver sow feeders as a measure to simplify feeding because the feeder is designed for self-feeding. A sow works a feed agitator to release as much feed as she wants -- similarly to how finishing hogs work the agitators on Farmweld Jumbo Feeders.

In Woodville’s older farrowing barn, sows must wait to eat until they are hand-fed twice per day. Woodville’s Chris Selthun says that’s adequate for some sows, but not all.

“There is always one or two (per row) that would eat more,” says Chris, who worked at Woodville Pork I prior to being promoted to manager of Woodville Pork II.

			Dr. Paul Yeske

“We want to get as much intake into the sows as possible, and sometimes the limiting factor can be the feeding process,” agrees SVC’s Dr. Paul Yeske. Adequate intake helps ensure good milk production and keeps the sows in good body condition, which according to Dr. Yeske, will mean sows are more likely to come back into heat soon after weaning and have bigger litters in subsequent farrowings.

Dr. Yeske says the ability to have feed in front of the sows at all times via the self-feeders is an option worth considering.

So how does Woodville know if sows are eager to eat? Employees walk through each farrowing room three times per day to check feed pans and make sure all sows are up and eating. They add feed to each feeder two or three times per week.

“This saves quite a bit of time,” says Selthun. He has also noticed that sows seem calmer be-cause, “They can get up during the middle of the day, get a drink and eat – they always have feed in front of them,” he says.

Performing maintenance health care on sows because of crate injuries was also taking too much time. “We’d rather have our employees tending to farrowing – which is pretty labor intensive itself – than spending time doing things like taking care of foot problems,” says Peter.

			Farmweld designed Woodville Pork II's breeding pens with quick-latches so gates can be opened with one finger. That means no hassles with trying to lineup gates or dealing with long gate rods.

Selthun thinks the heavy-duty Farmweld farrowing crates will be very durable. “She’s not likely to lift the crate up or bust a bar out,” says Selthun. Durable cast iron center sections under crates also provide a comfortable surface for sows and plastic flooring is ideal for pigs, according to Selthun. “The plastic is warm so pigs tend to stay there instead of crowding up to the sow. That should help with pre-weaning mortality,” he says. In the summer, cast iron remains cooler to keep sows comfortable.

Selthun says he also likes the user-friendly farrowing crates with Swinging Rump Guards because you can access the back of the crate without having the sow back out. The non-removable pins eliminate lost or dropped pull-pins.

The crate’s adjustability is also a plus. The crate sides and bow bars can be raised or lowered to fit various sized sows. “Whether you have a small gilt or a parity-11 sow, you can adjust the crate to make it comfortable,” says Selthun.

Assembling the new farrowing equipment was a snap, says Peter. He, Jes and Selthun or another employee were able to assemble the farrowing equipment themselves. “For what we didn’t have to spend to bring in a crew to assemble the equipment, we got in quality equipment – three to four farm boys put together 384 crates without any problems,” Peter says.

If you would like to contact Dr. Yeske, write to him at pyeske@swinevetcenter.com.