On Nov. 10, 2017, roughly 7,500 pigs died in a blaze at a hog barn in southeast Manitoba on the Blue Ribbon Sow farm which is part of the Henervic Farms. On Wednesday, Sept 19, 2018 the farm hosted an Open House and showing off the farm’s new sow barn conversion and a close look at the Maximus line of products including ventilation controls and the ESF electronic sow feeder systems.
Craig Sawatzky, the owner and manager of Blue Ribbon Sow family farm and quite proud of the fact that they are up and running despite that costly and devastating fire only last November. “Once we’re in full production, we’ll have 3,000 sows after completing the rebuild following that fire. We have one barn that stayed standing, and this is our renovation/conversion to move to open housing, and it’s exciting,” said Sawatzky. We’re hoping to stock animals here by Sept 27, and this is our way of showing others what we’re doing here.”
He said they had animals in the now renovated barn after the fire and used a different site to farrow out the existing animals, depopulated in June and ready to restock Sept 27. While still under construction, once finished the site will have two connected barns, breeding and gestation on one side and the farrowing section on the other side.
Along with a devastating fire and rebuild came the opportunity to convert to the new open housing and feeding system for their sows. “For us, it is exciting to see some of the new technology at work. There are enough operations that have made the switch paving the way on what to do and what not to do, and we’re very comfortable with the decision to go to open housing,” said the proud owner.
When it comes to the ESF (electronic sow feeders), there are a few different options; the Blue Ribbon sow farm chose the Maximus system. “We’re very comfortable with the product, and it’s an excellent working relationship with the people selling it,” said Sawatzky.
“The advantage is it controls our feed, the air, the fans and the feeding station itself automatically. And I can be at home and on my phone and can check anything I want, or get an alarm, or a response, or an update, or whatever I need from anywhere I want.”
With the new code of practices dictating group housing for sows in Canada he said it is a lot easier than most people thought to convert and switch over because of the new technology.
“There are so many tools at your disposal now to maximize your production and to take care of your herd, that it’s stimulating,” he said.
Henervic Farms originally built a 1,200 sow barn in 2002 on this site, expanded to 3,000 in ’04 operating the unit right up until the fire in Nov 2017. With the rebuild, the production unit remains the same size operation but with some pretty fancy new equipment now.
“The fire, it was a horrible experience, awful, but now moving forward, there are some exciting things that we can do, and it’s very exciting,” he said.
Sawatzky described the ESF sow feeding system starting with the sow’s radio tag, and when she comes close to the feeding station, it will turn, and drop her food.
“She (sow) can come to the station as often as she wants. Once she gets her daily amount, then it just won’t drop her anymore feed,” Sawatzky said. •
— By Harry Siemens
