Shelter For Farrowing

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30823, 7 August 1965, Page 10

Shelter For Farrowing

I\TR G. S. Meyer, of the Radar Farm at Springston, has 32 of these rolled corrugated iron huts or shelters on his 230-acre property where he has 200 sows which spend the whole of their life in the open. Some of the sows are farrowing every month of the year. At first he used bales of straw to provide a rough sort of shelter for his sows at farrowing, but he soon realised that he needed something that could be readily moved round and this led him to design the type of shelter seen on the left in the photograph above, copying shelters he had seen depicted in advertisements in English farming journals. They are now being made by Mr B. P. Bohan, of Springston, and his version on the right is designed for use as a lambing motel or shelter.

Both the farrowing shelter and lambing motel measure 6ft by 7ft, and whereas the pig shelter stands 3ft 4in high at its highest point, the lambing shelter is 4ft 3in high at the peak. Both are approximately a half circle of corrugated iron and have angle iron frames. The pig shelter is fully enclosed at the back and is also half enclosed in the front. The effect

of the curved ' sides of the shelter is to act as a farrowing rail to provide an escape route for the piglets when the sow lies down against the wall. The lambing shelter takes four or five ewes and their lambs, and is divided by a wooden partition into two sections. Low gates are fitted at each end and these are partially solid to obviate draughts at a low level. The low gates also make it possible for the farmer or his helper to reach in to attend to the ewes or lambs without having to get into the shelter itself.

Low Losses

While the English versions of these shelters have a wooden floor, these shelters have no floor. Mr Meyer throws at least a bale of straw into his shelters and the sows make their own beds. He has found that the shelters have performed well, This winter in June and July some 350 piglets were born and total losses from all causes were not more than 25. When he wants to shift the shelters from paddock to paddock Mr Meyer says that two can be readily carried on the hydraulically-oper-ated crate on the back of his

tractor. They can be moved for placing on a trailer or truck by two men. Mr Meyer is planning to build a long trailer to take four of them as well as for carrying irrigation pipes in the season. For his 200 sows Mr Meyer says that he could really do with some 50 of these shelters.

The piglets remain with the sows using these shelters until they are weaned at about six to eight weeks of age. The weaners or slips are then run on the paddocks with a temporary more open type of shelter being provided. Finally they go into Mr Meyer’s modem fattening house for finishing off for principally bacon. There are now some 360 pigs in the fattening house.