Contract grower Tom Jansen, Mason, IL, says loading out pigs takes less time than it did before he remodeled his 600-head conventional facility into a FAST II facility.

Training pigs to use a FAST II™ system is easy, according to several producers operating facilities. Farmweld keeps a close eye on training practices in the field and has developed a training protocol. In addition, the company took steps with its FAST II technology to make sure training is as efficient and animal-friendly as possible.

Tom Jansen, a Mason, IL, contract grower, trained his pigs to use the scale within a few weeks after entry. He recently remodeled a 600-head conventional facility into a FAST II barn. He says he studied Farmweld’s training protocol and also spoke with others who had experience training pigs. Though he says training required some added time soon after entry in the automatic sorting barn versus traditional facilities, Jansen contends he’ll spend far less time in the load-out phase. He recently started selling early batches and says loading out was much less effort than it used to be. “The pigs loaded out much easier than they did before I remodeled,” says Jansen.

James Snavely, an Elizabethtown, PA, independent producer, says his pigs learned to use FAST II scales within two weeks after they entered his new 2,200-head barn. During the first week Snavely, “just left everything open so the pigs could explore and get used to the scale,” he says. He left the scale gates open, and he also opened gates next to the scale so pigs could easily access the food courts. He did not turn on the scale at this time.

			James Snavely of Elizabethtown, PA, says pigs learned to use the FAST II scales in his new facility within two weeks after entry.

The following Monday Snavely began a session to teach the pigs to go through the scale. He moved all of the pigs out of the food courts into one half of the loafing area. He closed the gates next to the scale so pigs had to go through the scale to get to the feeders. Snavely also blocked off the one-way gate to that side of the loafing area. “After 24 hours, all but 20 pigs had been through the scale,” Snavely says of the first group he trained. He manually routed the remaining pigs through the scale into the food courts. He then opened the gates near the scale and the one-way gate so pigs could again explore the pens.

On Wednesday of that week Snavely repeated the process of moving the pigs out of the food courts and into one half of the loafing area. By the next day all but five pigs went through the scale. Again, he herded the remaining pigs into the food court and then opened the gates and one-way gate. After 24 hours of letting the pigs explore, Snavely once again moved all the pigs out of the food court and into one-half of the loafing area. By the end of the second week after entry, all of the pigs were trained.

			Ginni Davis, Reynolds, IN, says that pigs trained “perfectly” in her new FAST II facility.

Once all the pigs had learned to go through the scale, Snavely let the pigs flow through it for about ten more days. Then Snavely activated the scale in the Train mode so pigs could get accustomed to its operation.

Snavely says the pigs have adapted well to the system. “The pigs are not afraid of the scales at all,” he says. “Everything is working very smoothly.”

Sorting pigs alternately right and left in the Train position is one of the ways the FAST II technology enhances training. This gives the pigs the experience of exiting the scale in either direction prior to sorting. Another pig-friendly feature is how the entrance gates operate. The system is low pressure so the gates close gently behind small pigs. And they are programmed to close at just the right time due to the patent-pending ESP» System. This contributes to small pigs having a good experience when they first learn to use the scale. That improves throughput and pig performance.

After forty years as a farrow-to-finish producer, Ginni Davis converted a barn originally built as a gestation barn into a FAST II barn last October. The Reynolds, IN, producer’s pigs learned to use the FAST II system after three training sessions, just as Farmweld’s training protocol indicated. Davis admits that surprised her.

			Brian Fay says pigs trained more quickly than he thought they would at his Atwood, IL, operation.

“I have always known how smart pigs are,” says Davis. “But when I read that they’d learn to use this equipment in three times through it, I thought 'yeah, right.’

“But it worked – perfectly,” Davis says.

Pigs adapted to the automatic system much faster than Atwood, IL, producer Brian Fay thought they would. He and his brother, Robert, remodeled a 1,000-head building with two FAST II scales. They first loaded the barn last October. The Fays followed Farmweld’s training protocol as described above. After the short training period, Fay says the scales were getting nearly 1,500 hits per 24-hour period in the Train mode, close to three hits per pig per day. “I think training has been easier than I thought it would be,” says Fay. “The pigs look good.”