Dr. Bill Hollis and client Bruce Brown, Rich Pork Farm.

Bruce Brown was curious to see how pigs in a facility retrofitted with FAST II would handle a 90-degree turn between the pen and the truck loading chute. He knew from experience the sharp turn was a major bottleneck at load-out when pigs were housed in traditional, 25-head pens.

So how did they do? “The pigs practically ran to the truck,” says Brown, who man-ages three retrofitted FAST II facilities at Rich Pork Farm, Deer Creek, IL. Brown says he believes FAST II pigs are easier to load out because they are accustomed to walking through the narrow scale and turning right and left. “They are so used to being guided by the sorter, I think there is just not as much stress or fear in these pigs to go ahead and go around a corner,” he says.

As a matter of fact, Brown says pigs seem less stressed whenever he enters the barn. “I think they are calmer because you are walking through them all the time, and they are used to that contact.” he says.

Sorting pigs is also a whole lot simpler with FAST II , says Brown. “You just set the scale and it does it for you,” he says. Brown monitors weights from the FAST II scale to determine when a load is ready and where to set his exact sort weight to create a load of 160 pigs. Rich Pork Farm markets pigs at about 270 lbs. Simplified sorting and load out means less people power is needed at the FAST II sites versus the three traditional finishers Brown manages. Once pigs are trained, which Brown says wasn’t nearly as difficult as he expected (see related story), the FAST II sites require fewer people for sorting pigs. “These take a lot less labor long term,” says Brown.

Beyond easier sorting and loading, Dr. Bill Hollis, Rich Pork Farm’s consulting veterinarian and management advisor, says he sees two main opportunities with automatic sorting facilities. One is that by knowing the exact weights of pigs throughout the feeding period, producers like Brown can more accurately pinpoint when to change diets to match nutritional needs. In addition, the technology will improve sorting accuracy. “The ultimate goal is to hit the best bracket in the marketing matrix with all of the pigs,” says Dr. Hollis.