Livestock Housing / Feedlots

CANADA

Beef Cattle Handling Facilities. FarmFacts. Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food - Handling facilities are an essential part of any cattle operation. Well-built, functional facilities contribute much to easy, safe and rapid handling of cattle. Properly designed handling systems allow one person to work the cattle as required. Regardless of design, extra help always makes handling cattle easier and safer.   Good handling facilities need not be overly expensive. It pays to invest in quality for critical components such as a good squeeze and sturdy gates and latches. Always use pressure treated posts.

Managing Feedlot Runoff to Protect Water Quality. Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.  Sandra Cooke - If not handled properly, manure can harm water quality. For example, fields with manure applied in excess of crop needs, manure stockpiled on fields and improper siting of intensive livestock operations are potential sources of water pollution.  Nutrients in runoff from your feedlot promote the growth of unwanted aquatic plants and algae. Dissolved oxygen in the water is depleted when algae die and decompose. This often causes fish kills. Decomposing algae can also generate offensive taste and odour problems. Extremely high ammonia levels in manure runoff can kill fish.

Controlling Runoff from Confined Livestock Areas. Manitoba Agriculture. Runoff from a confined livestock area could harm water quality if it is allowed to enter a surface watercourse. Excessive amounts of plant nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, will increase aquatic plant growth if they enter a surface watercourse. Nitrogen, in the form of ammonia, is toxic to aquatic life.

Alberta Feedlot Management Guide. Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development - The Alberta Feedlot Management Guide has been developed through the cooperation of the Feeder Associations of Alberta Ltd. and Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. The Guide provides practical information that can enhance production efficiency and management skills in Western Canadian feedlots. It will be used by both backgrounders and finishers of cattle in educating themselves and training their staff.

Farm Structures and Handling Systems. Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food. The Canada Plan Service is a co-operative provincial network of agricultural engineers, design draftspersons and livestock specialists. It is concerned with the planning, design and construction of modern farm buildings to serve the needs of Canadian agriculture.

A Comparative Study of Energy Use in Hog Barns on the Prairies. Final Report Sept 1999 (327 KB pdf) - Mohammad Khakbazan, Can. Agric. Energy End-Use Data & Analysis Centre (CAEEDAC), U. of Sask. - The main objective of this research is to analyze the cost efficiency of different energy sources in hog production in Saskatchewan. Energy use comparison is done by using 19 hog operations of an ILO Group in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. These operations are ideally suited since construction is uniform but location, energy source, and management practices are different. Other objectives of this report are to provide an overview of hog industry and energy use in Saskatchewan. The final objective of this report is to find the current best practices.

Evaluation of a 1000-head "Environmentally Friendly Facility" Swine Finishing Barn [1373  KB pdf] (Nov. 2001). Ron Fleming, and Malcolm MacAlpine, Ridgetown College, U. of Guelph,  Ridgetown, Ontario, N0P 2C0. The barn is located on a swine farm near Exeter, Ontario. This report outlines the results of studying this novel concept in barn construction over a one-year period.  This system of handling hog manure has shown to be a viable alternative to liquid manure. The use of straw and forced aeration to transform the liquid hog manure into a dry manure was quite successful.

Investigation of Manure Production in Typical 3-Site Hog Facilities [182 KB pdf]  (1999). Ron Fleming, Doug Hocking, Malcolm MacAlpine, and Jennica Johnston, Ridgetown College, U. of Guelph,  Ridgetown, Ontario, N0P 2C0 - In a 12-month period beginning in the spring of 1998, a study was initiated to examine the impact of wet/dry feeders on manure production, manure nutrient levels, and water use in feeder pig barns. This type of feeder is a popular choice in feeder barns. In addition, many of the recently-built feeder barns have been associated with three-site pig production.

Mathematical Modelling of Manure Production by Pig Farms. Effect Of Feeding And Housing Conditions. [235 KB pdf] (2003); Jean-Yves Dourmad¹, Candido Pomar², Daniel Massé²; ¹ INRA Joint Research Unit for Pig and Calf Production, 35590 Saint-Gilles, France; ² AAFC, Dairy and Swine Research and Development Centre, C.P. 90, Lennoxville, QC, J1M 1Z3 - Eastern Nutrition Conference 2003 - A mathematical model was developed from literature data to predict the volume and composition of the effluent produced by pig farms. In the model, all nutrient fluxes starting from those entering the farm with the feeds up to those leaving the piggery with the slurry are considered.

U.S.A.

Alternative swine housing: A brief review of tarp-covered hooped structures with deep bedding for grow-finish pigs - M.S. Honeyman, Animal Science Department, Iowa State University - An alternative housing system is available for grow-finish swine which consists of a hooped-pipe. Quonset-shaped structure covered with fabric tarp. The ends are open most of the year. A concrete pad is at one end with feeder and waterer. The remaining area is deep bedded and cleaned after each group of pigs is marketed. Over 400 shelters are used for pig finishing in Manitoba.

Applicability of High-Rise Hog Housing for Finishing Operations (2002). (pdf). Richard R. Stowell, U. of Nebraska - Lincoln, rstowell2@unl.edu.  Design of High-Rise^TM swine facilities allows the generation of a solid, manure-laden material from hogs raised in confinement housing with slatted floors. The volume of manure that must be handled annually can be reduced through continuous moisture loss that takes place within the system’s drying bed and recycling of bed material.

Livestock Behaviour, Design of Facilities and Humane Slaughter. Dr. Temple Grandin, Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1171 - Handling Facility Layout Rules: 1.The crowd pen must always be level.  2.If the system includes a ramp, it should be located within the single file chute.  3.An animal standing in the crowd pen must be able to see 2 to 3 body lengths up the single file chute before it curves. This will facilitate entry into the chute; Example Drawings for Ranches (or Properties) and Plant Facilities; Computer Aided Drawings.

Hoop Structures (Hooped house swine production) Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University, 209 Curtiss Hall, Ames, Iowa 50011-1050; tel: 515-294-3711; fax: 515-294-9696 - Objectives are to follow pig production in hooped structures, characterizing the environment, manure management issues and behavior and physiology of pigs fed in hoop structures.

Manure Production and Nutrient Concentrations from High-Rise Layer Houses (1999). J. C. Lorimor, H. Xin, Agric. and Biosystems Eng. Dept, Iowa State U., Ames, Iowa. - Appl. Eng. in Agriculture:15(4): 337-340 - Four commercial high-rise layer houses were monitored for a year to determine manure production and nutrient concentration characteristics. Each house contained 80,400 to 124,500 mature Hy-Line W-36 birds; objective was to accurately characterize the manure production to facilitate better nutrient planning. Manure volume and bulk density were measured and samples were collected monthly and analyzed for moisture, Kjeldahl nitrogen, ammonia, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and other chemical constituents.

Bruce T. Bowman, Archivist
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 06:58:00 AM