Ahrens Farm
Doug Ahrens runs a farrow-to-wean barn near Sebringville, Ontario that underwent expansion in 2013 to add a new space for group gestation.
Overview
Doug Ahrens runs a 650 sow farrow-to-wean barn in Sebringville, Ontario and is very active in the swine industry, serving as a director with Ontario Pork and Chair of the 2015 London Swine Conference. His sow barn was originally built in 1996, and in 2013 a 6,720 ft2 addition was added to create space for group gestation. The gestation barn is curtain sided to provide natural light and ventilation, and contains one large group pen with 5 Weda ESF feeders. The room houses 260 sows and gilts at 25.8ft²/sow, and has a maximum capacity of 300 sows.
Sows and gilts on Ahrens’ farm are bred in stalls in weekly cohorts of 28 animals, and are weekly added to the group pen at 40 days gestation. By expanding the barn to accommodate group sow housing, no reduction in herd numbers was needed during the renovation phase. During the implementation period, there was an initial drop in sow productivity as employees and animals adjusted to the new facility, but within 6 months production levels had returned to normal, with a 90% farrowing rate and 12.7 piglets born alive/litter.
After experiencing some difficulties with initial training of sows and gilts on the ESF system, Ahrens has since constructed a separate training area for incoming gilts to address this problem. It is particularly important that gilts be trained correctly before entering the pen, especially in a dynamic group system as the presence of older sows can intimidate gilts and the large pen area makes it more difficult implement training.
Gestation Room Layout
The gestation barn consists of a 80 x 84 foot addition with curtain siding. The single dynamic ESF pen includes 5 Weda ESF feeders and a sorting alley. The pen in laid out in a circular or ‘racetrack’ fashion, where sows must make a full circuit of the room to return to the feeder. This design discourages sows from making multiple feeder feeder visits per day and reduces competition at the feeder entrance.
The 12 x 64 foot sorting pen is designed with flexible gating and can be either left open as part of the large group pen, or closed off to allow sorting of identified sows for movement to farrowing or vaccination. A boar pen with heat detection may be added at a later date, with this addition the sorter can be used to separate open sows for breeding.
The fully slatted floors minimize manure buildup but do not provide an optimal surface for resting and sow comfort. A potential improvement would be the addition of solid lying areas in some of the ‘bedroom’ areas, either by pouring a sloped concrete pad, rubber mats, or by inserting gap covers.
