Question for Veteran Hog Feeders.......

Iowa Farmer · Jan 21, 2009

Hello,

This evening I was pitching out the straw bedding and the ammonia smell in the building was about unbearable. I was wondering if any of you guys knew of ny tricks to help the air quality improve. I change straw every third day and use a good shot of barn lime down on the cement before I bed down the new straw. I get them up and out every morning and evening and lock them out for about 15 or 20 minutes (depending upon the weather) to ensure that they have a chance to mess outside at least twice a day (feed and water is outdoors as well). The building is a older pitched roof building with 10 foot walls. It has been used for hogs since it was constructed in the 1930's. I have fed a few groups of winter hogs before and never had this much difficulty with air quality before. It has been been cold, but has been warming up since I last cleaned it out Sunday evening. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

Anonymous-0 · Jan 21, 2009

Several farmers in my area have pigs. The bigger ones have big chimneys that are higher than neighboring houses with fans in them. There is a rule of 1 per so many (?) sq meters of building. Intake vents are low. Smaller setups just have a window or vent they can open. These hogs are born inside and never see the sky unless they catch a glimpse while being loaded for slaughter. I don't know how they manage it, but unless you hear them, you wouldn't know that some of them had pigs.

Dave

RayP(MI) · Jan 22, 2009

Michigan State University has a research facility. Matter of pride with the operator is the lack of odor. According to him they keep the dry matter free from the liquid, which reduces the odor. Last time I was there, it still smelled!

Anonymous-0 · Jan 22, 2009

Houses/farms are real close together here. When the air is heavy and still at night (especially foggy) it can get to brewing pretty good. The barns themselves aren't that bad but............

One guy keeps between 10 and 50 and has some kind of PVC pallets (1mx1m) with 3/4 inch or so perforation that he made a second floor out of. Before he put it down, he painted the cement with silo (swimming pool) paint and ran a pvc water line along the wall with holes drilled every foot or so. The urine goes through the holes so it's not sloppy and he picks/replaces bedding as necessary. The floor slopes to a ditch that runs to a tank under the barn. About once a week (more or less as needed) he turns water onto the PVC line and flushes the floor down a little. When the tank under the barn is full, they pump it into a wagon tank and spray it on the fields. This is usually done when I fire up the grill and have people over.

Dave

fixerupper · Jan 22, 2009

For some reason unkown to me straw manure generates more ammonia. When I had hogs I used corn stalk bedding most of the time. It's much more absorbent and if I cleaned regularly, meaning every one to three days depending on the building and number of hogs, there would not be any water on the floor and it seemed like the ammonia level was lower. Jim

Clint Youse MO · Jan 22, 2009

Dont bed were the hogs stool at a hog will not lay were they have crapped we got rid of any barns that we had to straw all hogs are inside now we never locked them out though they are still going to do there duty where they want to always do walk thru them to make sure everybody is well and gets up

Question for Veteran Hog Feeders.......

Iowa Farmer

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Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

RayP(MI)

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

fixerupper

Well-known Member

Clint Youse MO

Member

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