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Northern New York | Looking for some ideas/ input on hog finishing barns.
A little back ground- my wife and I have expanded our sow herd to the point that we are going to be short on finishing space. We currently grow/ finish in a converted tie stall dairy barn ( I think I may have posted some pics on here in the past but I don't know how to check ). The barn works fine but we are thinking it would be nice to have something a little more labor efficient for finishing.
Any ideas for finishing barns? It needs to have about 200 head capacity. We have used a hoop style barn in the past and although it works we are not sure we want to go that route. We found sorting/ loading pigs to be less than ideal, and the amount of bedding needed was an issue. On the plus side, manure handling fits the equipment we currently have and most of our buyers are leaning more towards the "all natural"," humanely raised" types of production, although that is not an absolute requirement. Due to our climate/ environment outside finishing is not an option.
We are strongly considering a fully slatted barn with a pit underneath. We are waiting to get a quote from a company here in NY on a barn package. We would like to do a turn key barn but are too far north to get anyone interested in that so it looks like we will have to buy the package and build it ourselves. We are looking at a 21'x 100' tunnel ventilated barn.
My wife and I are looking at raising hogs for at least another 20-25 years so we are thinking it would be a good investment in the long term. We are currently at 50 sows and we raise purebred Berkshires so our price is more stable than the normal commodity markets.
Would you bite the bullet and build a full confinement? Or is there a better option we are overlooking?
Edited by hillskinefarms 5/23/2016 08:57
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Hog finishing barn ideas?
