PAULLINA, Iowa–"The universities
say pasture farrowing is a good low-capital, high-labor system,
but you'll sacrifice production efficiency. That's just not true,"
asserts Colin Wilson. "If you manage it right, there's really
no more labor than a confinement operation."
He should know. With his father, Ernest, and brother, Dan, Wilson
pasture farrows nearly two-thirds of his 250 hog litters each
year without sacrificing production or profits. They wean 8.8
pigs per litter for sows and 8.7 for gilts–excellent averages
for even the best–run confinement operations. And in '85,
their hogs returned $2.16 for every dollar spent on feed, 41 percent
more than the $1.53 average for hog producers in the Northwest
Iowa Farm Business Association.
The Wilsons are clearly in the minority. According to a recent
survey by the National Pork Producers Council, more than 80 percent
of all hog farmers use a central farrowing facility with pens
or crates.
But that's not the only fact that separates them from their peers.
With a $30-per-head break-even cost for their feeder pigs, the
Wilsons haven't had to depend on today's inflated hog-to-corn
price ratios to turn a profit. "Our feeders are always among
the top-priced pigs at auction, and the auctioneers never fail
to mention that they're pasture farrowed," says Ernest. "We
can't always smooth out dips in the market as well as someone
farrowing year-round, but we still have a margin, even when we
hit a low market. And if it's too low, we can hold back some feeders
and fatten more."
Rotation Cuts Costs
If pasture farrowing sounds tempting, the Wilsons are quick to
warn that it's not for everyone. They've worked the bugs out of
their system by trial and error since they started with 27 sows
and 12 A-frame farrowing sheds more than two decades ago.
"Timeliness of management is critical," stresses Colin.
"Many jobs require two people, sometimes three." But
none of the Wilsons seem to mind: The hog operation, plus 880
acres of corn, beans, oats and alfalfa, is profitable enough to
support all three of their families.
The Wilsons minimize feed and health-care costs with a three-year
rotation in three 18-acre fields adjacent to each other. The rotation
begins with corn, followed next spring with a drilled mix of 3.5
bushels of oats. 10 pounds of alfalfa and 3 pounds of orchardgrass.
Oats are harvested in summer leaving a thick pasture cover for
the hogs next year.
"It took us a long time to develop the mix," notes Colin.
"If you get too little alfalfa, the pasture isn't as palatable.
Too much, and you won't get a good orchardgrass cover and the
pastures will be muddy in wet years."
It takes them about two days to prepare the pasture for the first
farrowing on May 24, "about what it would take us to pump
the pits if we had all the hogs inside," jokes Colin. They
stress that the site needs to be well-drained with no low ground
unless the soil is sandy.
As soon as it's dry in spring, they use a tractor-mounted post
hole digger to set fence posts. Then, they string two, 14-gauge
wires (carefully rolled and tagged the previous fall) around the
perimeter of the field–one 4 to 8 inches high and the other
18 to 24 inches. Each wire has its own charger so there's always
a hot wire if one charger malfunctions.
The Wilsons also use double wires to divide the field into 150-
by 300-foot pens. "We learned not to charge the gates,
though. The hogs will learn it's hot, and then you won't be able
drive them through when it's open," notes Ernest.
Water is brought to the site in a flexible 3/4-inch PVC feeder
pipe, and then to individual waterers in 1/2-inch pipe. A homemade
tractor-mounted pipe roller built from a telephone wire spool
speeds the job.
A week before the first spring farrowing, the Wilsons vaccinate
sows in the winter farrowing house, then herd them to 20-foot-square
group sheds on one of the pasture lots to help them get acclimated.
Soon afterward, the first 15 or 20 due to farrow are moved to
another pen, where they choose their own individual A-frame farrowing
sheds.
$100 Farrowing Sheds
The Wilsons figure the 8-foot-long, bottomless wood-frame farrowing
sheds would cost about $100 each, if built from new materials.
"The three of us can build three a day–assembly line
style– and still get chores done," observes Colin.
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"The originals are 21 years old
and still in good shape," says Ernest. Rotted boards in a
few lower corners have needed repair, so the Wilsons now use pressure-treated
wood for the corners.
The A-frame design is deceivingly simple, but essential to minimizing
labor. All of the units (including the larger group houses) are
mounted on skids so they can be dragged into the pasture with
a small tractor or pickup. The sloping, 6-foot roof sections form
60-degree angles with the base, to keep the sow from flopping
onto young pigs. And the structure is just the right size so that
a sow can turn around, but not quickly enough to injure someone
working inside.
The open front of each shed faces southeast, while a rear access
door can be opened and closed for ventilation. Cold weather has
never posed serious problems during their late-May to mid-September
outdoor farrowing season. Before the sows move in, the Wilsons
spread half a bale of straw onto the ground inside the sheds to
reduce drafts. "The first time you spread bedding, you need
to shake out the straw well, so that the sows don't get used to
laying on lumps. But after the pigs are a week old, you can just
throw it in and the sows' nesting instincts take over," advises
Colin.
If sows need more bedding, they'll rob it from nearby sheds or
clip it from the pasture. "The bedding stays dry, even when
we had seven days of rain and water was streaming by the sheds,"
says Ernest.
Since the pigs aren't restrained, the sheds don't need cleaning
during the season. And when the sheds are removed in fall, the
8-inch pile of bedding left on the ground doesn't interfere with
field operations for the corn to follow. (However, litter from
the larger group houses does need to be scattered.)
Once in the A-frames, sows are fed as a group in the morning and
checked twice each day. As soon after farrowing as possible, the
Wilsons notch ears, clip needle teeth and dock tails. They also
bolt a temporary 2- by 12-inch board to the front of each shed
to teach baby pigs which A-frame is theirs. "We leave it
on three days to a week. Once they start jumping out, you can
pull it off," says Colin. Since the pigs are on pasture,
they require no iron shots and receive no vaccines at birth.
Labor needs peak when the pigs are about a week old. The Wilsons
like to castrate males on a hot afternoon when all the sows and
pigs are inside their sheds. They rely on their collie to keep
curious sows from wandering out of nearby sheds.
"After castrating, the workload really drops," says
Colin. "It's the last time the pigs have to be caught until
weaning. The sows go on a self-feeder and we just have to check
the ventilation twice a day."
A week to 10 days after birth, sows and their litters are moved
to group sheds in another pen. Up to 10 litters share each shed,
and there are two sheds in each pen. The empty A-frames are moved
to another pen for another group to farrow in.
At around 6 weeks–slightly later than most confinement operations–
the pigs and sows are transported to a central barn for weaning.
Before the feeders are sold at eight to nine weeks, they're vaccinated
for erysipilis and treated for parasites.
Corral Eases Herding
Such a management schedule would be impossible if the Wilsons
spent all their time chasing hogs around the pasture. That's why
they've developed handling methods that make their work more like
poetry in motion than a comedy of errors.
To start with, anytime sows or pigs need to be gathered for transport,
the Wilsons build a small, temporary corral in one corner of the
pen using 16-foot hog panels. Then they herd the animals around
the perimeter and into the corral. But that's usually not necessary
when treating individual sows, says Dan. "They're used to
having people around, so it's often possible to sneak up and give
one a shot while she's eating."
Herding sows between the winter farrowing house and the pasture
is easy: The older ones know the route and the others simply fall
in line. But young pigs need to be hauled. When it's necessary
to capture and transport a single sow, the Wilsons back a simple
homemade cart (resembling a farrowing crate on wheels) up to the
front of theA-frame, and coax the sow in.
When working in the farrowing sheds after birth or while castrating,
the Wilsons hold a small board near the sow's face to distract
and calm her. They also ring the sows' noses each spring, which
prevents them from tearing up the pasture and keeps them in line
if they get too rough. "You can just tap her on that sensitive
spot, and it will slow her down," notes Colin.
Unruly sows are sold.
After 20 years of careful culling and boar selection, the Wilsons
have bred a herd with a temperament and other qualities compatible
with their system. Their priority has been to eliminate farrowing
problems. And they believe the timid Landrace breeds preferred
for confinement operations aren't aggressive enough for pasture
farrowing. "If someone pulls a herd right out of confinement
operation stock and tries pasture farrowing, they're going to
have problems," warns Dan. "Look for hogs not raised
on slats. Anything raised on an outside lot would work."
The Wilsons have brought no sows onto the farm since 1949. Instead,
they've improved the herd's genetic base by rotating Duroc, Yorkshire
and Black Poland boars, buying the best available in lots of eight
to 10. "Small breeders often don't have enough good stock,
but we prefer them, because their boars bring in less disease,"
says Dan.
Breeding is timed so that a gilt's first farrowing is always in
the pasture. One group farrows in August, is bred back to farrow
in February, and then is sold. A second group farrows three times–
June, December and May– before being sold. All open sows
and gilts are culled. As a result, the Wilsons have had pregnancy
rates as high as 98 per-cent for sows and 93 percent for gilts.
Pasture Comes Inside
The Wilsons eliminate antibiotics from all sow and grower rations
while the pigs are on pasture. They grind and mix all their own
feed, including just the starter ration they begin creep feeding
three weeks after birth. "We don't need the fancy starters
filled with milk and sugar that are meant for early weaning,"
says Colin.
In addition to eliminating the need for iron shots or supplements,
the pasture allows the Wilsons to eliminate 50 pounds of soybean
meal from each ton of feed. When standard self-feeders get tied
up in replacement gilt pens, they dump shell corn into the pen
about once a week, supplemented with pelletized protein meal,
vitamins and minerals fed in troughs.
The Wilsons' herd is almost as happy and healthy inside during
winter as it is on pasture during summer. Part of the reason is
that the Wilsons don't abandon their sound management practices
when the cold weather comes. "These are the only slats in
the whole operation," says Dan, pointing to a small, plastic
orphan pen. "Otherwise, all our pigs are on straw during
the winter."
To be sure the pigs get a taste of the pasture year-round, the
Wilsons make about 2,500 bales of alfalfa hay each year. They
feed it free-choice through the winter, with the best hay going
to the farrowing house and nursery.
Since the first farrowing is always on pasture, sows don't expect
to be coddled during the winter farrowing. "They've been
through it. So they know what it's all about," says Dan.
They farrow on straw in a large, open room where the temperature
seldom tops 65 F.
The Wilsons only check the sows every
two hours during the day, and seldom at night. After farrowing,
the pigs are scooped up in a basket and moved to a lactation area
made up of 5- by 8-foot pens. Litters in adjacent pens share a
heat lamp.
Sows aren't fed in the lactation pens. Instead, they're turned
out for an hour or two twice a day to eat, drink, exercise and
dung. "They'll wait to dung outside, because that's what
they're used to doing in the pasture," explains Dan.
Just like in the pasture, sows and litters are moved to a communal
nursery at seven to 10 days. Door flaps give them access to an
outside exercise yard and self-feeders. When the pigs are about
two weeks old, they start joining their mothers at the feeders.
The Wilsons have never had disease
problems in the lactation pens, even though it's never been powerwashed
or disinfected; nor in the communal nursery, which is powerwashed
just once a year.
In addition to boosting profits, the Wilsons say pasture farrowing
has taught them a lot about what makes a healthy, contented hog.
"You see a lot more of their natural instincts when the hogs
are out on pasture" says Carla Wilson, Colin's wife. "Watching
the sows' elaborate nesting behavior, you see why confinement
can cause stress–especially when a sow is kept in the same
crate for several weeks. Besides, chores are more enjoyable in
the fresh air with contented sows grazing and groups of pigs playing
and hiding their heads in clumps of orchardgrass."
Colin agrees. "I can't really say our feed efficiency is
the same, but our rate of gain is as good as confinement when
I can produce 225-pound hogs in five and a half months."
As long as their 1,200 feeders and 800 fats continue to gain at
a total cost of $39.50 per hundredweight, the Wilsons can afford
a little inefficiency, and let their hogs have some fun.
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Reproduced with permission of the publisher. The New Farm, Jan. 1987, p. 26-29.