Efficient System Helps Raise Lots Of Hogs On Pasture

Efficient System Helps Raise Lots Of Hogs On Pasture HOG EQUIPMENT & IDEAS “Animal welfare is everything If you treat an animal right they gain better and the meat will taste better It’s a no brainer ” says Don Ruzicka Killam Alberta who figured out nifty ways to pasture pigs under roof His pigs get fresh pasture twice a day shade and a shower when it is hot and plenty of feed and water on demand His mobile hog shelters slide through the grass with ease and make U-turns just as smoothly Everything is geared to having happy hogs Pasture hogs have been a moneymaker for Ruzicka and his wife Marie They have grossed as much as $49 700 pasturing hogs and poultry on 9 35 acres a small part of their 640-acre all-pastured livestock operation Key to that return are his mobile shelters He built 3 for hogs that each take 20 hogs to market buying at a discount and selling at a premium “My pigs come from a purebred breeder who cull any gilts with too much back fat ” says Ruzicka “Good back fat is just what I want I raise them on pasture with supplemental feed and sell the pork to customers who come to the farm ” Frameworks for the shelters are mostly 1-in steel tubing except for the runner members which are 1 1/2-in tubing “I welded up the frame for each 34-in high side of the 16 by 32-ft shelters laid them on the ground and then tack-welded 34-in high by 16-ft long hog panels to them ” says Ruzicka “I stiffened the structure by running a 32-ft length of steel tubing from front to back at ground level ” A second length of tubing connects the tops of the side panels at their midpoints It further strengthens the structure but also serves two other functions One is to provide support for the roof panels that cover the back half of the pen A 4-ft length of steel tubing welds to it and the front to back stiffener tube A second upright welds to the middle of the rear panel A steel tube running from the top of one upright to the other serves as a ridge beam The midpoint stiffener also carries a length of 3/4-in water line halfway across it Turn a valve and water flows out the end of the line “When it gets hot I turn on the water line and the pigs wallow under it until cool ” says Ruzicka “Then they get up and go eat Without the cooling shower they just sleep all day ” A second water line runs to the front center of each mobile pen It feeds a nipple waterer All the waterlines connect to a 450-gal tank mounted on a salvaged sprayer carriage with dual wheels “The tank provides enough water for 60 hogs for 3 to 4 days depending on the heat ” says Ruzicka “The tank sits up high enough to provide gravity feed to the nipple waterers and the showers ” To make the pens mobile Ruzicka mounts each front corner on skis salvaged from the family’s old snowmobiles While each could easily be pulled by itself Ruzicka found a way to pull them in unison He hooked them to the toolbar of an old rod weeder after stripping it down Initially Ruzicka had the shelters side by side but the first time he tried turning it didn’t work Adding 2 ft between was just enough space “I keep an old tractor hooked up to the toolbar and pull the water trailer with an old pickup ” says Ruzicka “When the water tank runs low I just pull it back to the buildings and refill it ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Don Ruzicka Box 579 Killam Alta Canada T0B 2L0 780 385-2474; www sunrisefarm ca

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.