I've Solved Our Pig Barn Problems! (Designing for Happy Pigs)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- A different, low labor, high animal welfare way to raise breeding pigs!
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Just a Few Acres Farm
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Lansing, NY 14882
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You will see a pig limping at around 7:35. That is Tiny Tim. Her mother laid on her when she was a piglet and she has limped ever since. Nothing to be done about it; she gets around just fine.
I was wondering if he made out ok on the move.
I must really care about your pigs 🐖 because I noticed it prior to seeing this message. I thought he had a fight with another piglet.
How will you protect pigs during farrowing?
Hi Pete I wanted ask what clock place that you purchase from I know time savers what was the other one.
Hello, I rec'd a message that I was randomly selected to win a prize. Peter, can you confirm if this is legit? My gut tells me this is a scam, but, I just want to be sure, as I do enjoy your TH-cam channel....
You know you've got the right design when you get excited about it's simplicity and elegance while it still does the job.
Love to see common sense in action. Well done!!
We raised 80 pigs a year using hog huts and large separate pens similar to what you are saying, and I totally agree. This is a labor of simplicity and happiness!! Great plan
Before we built a farrowing house we used the hog huts made them out of two sheets of plywood they looked like an a frame...I can't tell you how many times a sow ran me on top of them!!!! Once we built the farrrowing house our production went through the roof. Sows didn't lay on the pigs as bad. Our house held 60 30 on each side with cattle panels making the pens slanted concrete floors. Until the sow was ready to farrow she and all the other 5-600 stayed in the fields and low land. Those were the days.
Is your pig farm still operating? Are there any other animals kept there?
@@tony98discovery Tony we sold out in the early 90s and got out of raising pigs ans went back to row crop. In the 80s I belive most all major pig production went to the Midwest and there is no way we could compete on a large scale. The farrowing house arill stands it's a shed now for equipment;(. I miss those days and would not trade it for the world. It was hard work and taught me alot about work ethics.
I love the fact that you take the animals happiness into consideration as part of your planning. It's one of the things I love about watching you walk around your farm - seeing the animals getting to act and live according to their nature, even if they are destined to end up as food later.
I'm glad for you that you found a happy solution for all. 😊
I like the way you and your wife take care of your animals. Pigs are my favorite. They're all happy, I wouldn't worry youns are doing fabulous. God bless.
Farming on any scale is always "flexible". You learn as you go... Working smarter not harder... And spending wisely. I've loved your flexible thought process on everything you do. Thanks, as always Pete and family, for sharing your life with us. ❤❤❤
I am always impressed with whatever work Pete does on his farm.
We used a 60 by 40 building built in the early 30s, but well maintained.
It had a south facing celestory roof that was common locally. I have also heard that roof called a sawtooth roof.
The alley way, and foundation were concrete.
The point of this is the floors in the pens were paved with 12 inch square hollow clay tile on gravel. Once in memory Dad, and I pulled up the floor to relevel it. This was perhaps my most difficult reply ever.
Thank you spellcheck.
Thank you Pete.
Pig, breeding, housing, quarters, care department. That’s one hotline I’ll never call!
Love your new plan. I’m excited to watch this big change come to the farm. Best of luck this spring.
Sounds like a great plan! Would you cover the addition? I didn’t understand that part.
Thanks for bringing us along. It is a pleasure.
I've been watching you and you're sweet wife Hillary do stuff, so keep doing stuff with Hillary. You might ask you're contractor what he thinks, has he done this kind of thing, and then do what you do so well. It's fun to watch you and Hillary do that Benny Hill kind of video. That was wonderful to watch her chase you around the place. Yes I loved this video. Michigan didn't get any snow from the last weather front. It's fun to watch you plow on the small tractor. Anyway, keep the videos coming.
Pete, your new plan for the pigs sounds like a more simple solution than the other designs you talked about. Your smiles and enthusiasm are encouraging so we look forward to when you put this solution into practice.
Great Plain B. KISS always works and decreases expense.
Sounds like a solid plan! Good to see the progression of ideas. Looking forward to seeing the action!
I love how you take us along on your thought process. I don’t have any experience with pigs yet so this is very informative and gives me ideas of what I can do on my own farm. Watching you video reminds me of how easy it is to overestimate that which is complicated and underestimate that which is simple. Thanks for another great video.m and looking forward to seeing more on how your ideas will evolve. Have a great day. 😊
This is great information Pete! We are just starting our pig breeding part of our little farm and you’ve given me a lot to think about. Thanks so much!!!
Sounds like a great plan to me. I knew you'd figure it out. You know what you're doing.
It sounds like a great idea! I have always believed that keeping an animal in a natural surrounding is so much better for them. They do seem happy when they feel more freedom to move about.
I was an architecture major in college (left school to join Navy). I love the thought processes you are walk us thru, bigger isn’t always better, rehabbing old spaces might be the answer or this new idea. I believe your architect mind is in overdrive and deep down inside you are loving it! I can’t wait to see how this eventually turns out.
Pete, your new plan seems extremely sound. I have spent forty-five years in the field of engineering design and construction, and your design methodology directly parallels the design philosophy of our field. It's funny how, given enough time, practically seems to creeps it's way into the plan. We've noticed that the first plan, loaded with all of the sunshine and roses preferences, tends to slam headlong into practicality and the inevitable budget constraints. I'm looking forward to seeing your final outcome. Have a great one, Pete.
Billy is always happy to see you, if he only knew what you have in store for him.
Yes, I am excited for you. I love seeing your happy pigs. They truly do look relaxed and happy. Onward with the new. Every spring my Grandmother would start her spring cleaning and the motto was always, “out with the old and in with the new”! I think it applies here as well.
Great news Pete .glad y’all happy while you having work done on end piggery in now add a lean to shed along side for some equipment.can be done while you are constructing any way just and idea.good luck.
I'm a pig farmer in Canada and we rais around 600 pigs a year. When the sow's have had their piglets we put groups of sow's and their piglets together, the only thing you need to make sure of is that the piglets are the same age, otherwise the older ones will steel milk from the younger ones. But other then that it's a great idea!👍
It's funny how the answer is often right in front of you. I've always liked the way you raise out your winter pigs. They have plenty of room and ventilation without the muddy mess you can get with outdoor pins or small enclosed indoor pens.
I appreciate you sharing your initial plans and then the refiguring of them.
I like your approach to problem solving. You could have jumped into your initial plan, but thought about it, refined the plan, and now have a happy plan. Great job, Pete.
Taking lots of notes, I think this is a great improvement on initial design have breeders live similar to feeders with less work closer to nature
Pete, this solution is elegant and sounds like it ticks all the boxes for the changes you really wanted to make. I think the planning phase of any major project is both my favorite and can also be the most frustrating part. I totally relate to your comment about Occam's Razor - it is so easy to fall into the trap of over-complicating design and planning and let scope creep change your original goals. I find it really rewarding to hear (and watch) you talk through your decision making process. Good luck on the new pig pen! It sounds like a real winner.
We have been plotting some changes for our own pigs. Lots of good thoughts
Sounds like a good plan and it seems your happy with your design and that's always a plus. I've always had all my pigs to gather I do separate roolee boars and move the boars when piglets are born I have removed gilts a few times when they try stealing piglets they have no piglets or milk I guess they just what to practice before theirs come. I've never really had any big problems
Sound's like a well thought out plan. The simpler solution is almost always the best. I have a neighbor that raises cattle. Has so for years. Many years ago his cows got out on a somewhat regular basis and sometimes made it to our garden. But that stopped. Later on I found out that what he did was when a cow got out he culled it from the herd. Eventually, the cows that were left didn't get out as often. I think with the socialization if you have a long term problem, just cull the offender from the herd. But I'm not an expert, so take that with a large grain of salt.
Sounds like a great KISS plan.
fantastic plan, less work and much healthier and nicer for the pigs, and also for marketing better:
organic raised pigs (meat)
I agree when ever you are designing a system you want it as simple as possible to use. Great job!
Sows remind me of other matriarchal animals. We worked on a free range pig farm in Maine one summer. The sows were all out in a huge wooded pasture together during pregnancy. If we didn't get a sow into a farrow pen before labor the other sows would make a protective circle around her while she gave birth.
Full circle Pete. Good thing you are now a farmer as an architect now you’d go broke! You’ve talked the client out of a big expensive build! 🤣
Always love a new video to help start the day off. You must of had a long talk with Patty to be able to get that much filming done in front of the barn and she was not complaining. Keep up the great videos
Taking the time to think through things usually saves money and work so I've been told. I'm excited to see how it goes.
Im almost excited as you are.....cant wait to see the new operation.
That sounds like even a better plan than the other plans
I like your pig process. Great job!
That sounds like a well thought out plan. Your winter pigs are so calm they love their home. I can’t wait for the changes working smarter not harder
I like your idea for the pigs, Going to try it at my Daughter’s place
Great plan Pete
Very exciting! That’s definitely a win win, you save a lot of money on concrete and simplified the design which means less work. Great job y’all!
Very good idea! Easy, no stress and makes a lot of sense!
theres that smile. good to have you back Pete. nothing exites me more in morning ~ than the smell of Coffee in the air and the sounds of construction. new construction can be a good thing. Out with the bad and in with the new. good self esteem booster. the smell alone of wood being cut by a circular saw, heightens the feeling of accomplishment and progress. my advice as a builder. have a Good plan long before you build. Stick To That Plan and try not to deviate from it. every change -will Costs Time and money by the square foot. Most of the budget will be consumed by man hours. so be prepared. cant wait.
Great solution!!! I'll be going for the ride with you.
I love the way you keep your pigs!! "oink, Oink". They ARE happy! Bev in Maine
Excellent video Pete :) also great plans and yes pigs make excellent pork meat to yummy to agree 100% ! Happy St. PATRICK'S Day to you also family and everyone too! I never did Pig farming but all you experienced and explain it not bad job too easy steps to do !
I'm happy for you!
It's always a great video when Pete gets this exited...God Bless!!
Socrates, I am glad you have put some thought into this dilemma. I would expect nothing less from you. I loved the video.
Pete, I like how the process has been revised and you consider all the details associated with the options you have considered. Taking a simplified and efficient approach to the entire pig operation makes the most sense!!!
Thanks for bringing us along during your planning and revision process on this new endeavor!
Good morning Pete and family!
We had a neighbor who commercially raised pigs in a method he learned in Norway/Finland 30 years ago. Sows lived in groups(he had 20-30 sows in each group) together in an open pole barn. Just before farrowing he moved the group to a clean empty barn with an alternating row of straw/hay round bales down the middle. He had temporary plywood boxes 4x6'x4'high down each side. He had a couple more stalls than sows. The sows busied themselves for days carrying bedding into the suits they chose for themselves. Each 4x6 box had a doorway just big enough for the sow with a freight roller on the bottom sill to raise sill to keep piglets in the box at least for a while-a few weeks. The roller is to protect moms udder as she goes in and out over the extended sill. His groups seemed to respect each others space/suits. Sows came and went as they pleased and all ate/drank in the same place. They all farrowed in the boxes and the little guys stayed in there as they couldn't get out over the sill/rolle rat lease for a while. As the piglets grew he removed the door sills to allow everybody to come and go. Later he removed the strong but temporary plywood boxes on both sides(hung on the walls) to have one huge group. Later he moved the moms all out of the barn at once to be rebred in an outside area/another barn and the piglets grew out in the barn they were born in. He had numerous pole barns all the same size so he could be flexible for hay/straw storage and farrowing. Little smell and very quiet. Barns got cleaned out after hogs were shipped for next time. Gravel floors on a well drained site kept things dry. I was around farrowing barns with crates and stalls previously and couldn't believe a big group could coexist but he did it. I could have stayed for hours, quiet clean pigs puttering around in big social groups. They acted more like cattle. He grew his own hay/grains and he used a lot of it for bedding but he also had all the manure to use as well.Now I do remember him saying about raising all the sows together in a group so there was less stress/fighting. He also fed a lot of hay to the sows(hay bombs)-it saved some money and was cheaper than feeding all grain and gave them something to do-enrichment. Unfortunately he went bankrupt with like seemingly everybody here in Nova Scotia growing pigs 20 years ago-today he would do very well marketing pigs grown this way to people who care. His pigs went to the same place as all the other commercial pigs with no recognition or extra pay.
Spring is in the air.
Thanks for the video Pete 👍
Simplicity is always the key. I am watching your process with great interest. I have moved back to my family place as I get closer to my retirement and want to set up the best system I can for me to have livestock, including pigs, in a small pasture, a system that would be easiest for me to work. Watching you over the past few videos go around and around trying to figure out how to do. This new add-on has been very illuminating. I could see that you were not comfortable with it the further you got into it and I think you have found the correct process for yourself. It will be exciting to watch.
Absolutely will work. We used to farm had about 20 to 30 head at a time. Keep them all together. We had about a 2.5 acre fenced in pasture with one out building. Never had any problems.
You definately do things right, your animals are so happy and content❤ it's due to your love for them
Our hog operation was a 2 acre pen in the woods..on one side there was a large area that was open to the sun & thats also where feeding took place.
We had brooding huts that the sows used , but they were all together . Including piglets. The brooding huts got square bale hay , & 1/3 of the hut was an area the sows could'nt access , but the piglets could . It saved the lives of many piglets.
Feeding was easy...as was watering. We never had to enter the pen . The feeders were built into a fence line as was watering .
It had natural drainage & as you know , the toilet areas provided compost...
This wooded area had one great advantage . In the fall acorns & hickory nuts littered the ground & they loved it. In October our feed costs were practically nothing .
We used to go into the pen once a year with the loader & scoop out the manure . It was a fantastic fertilizer.
Good luck Pete...
You have an exiting spring sounds like.
Hi Peter,
can't wait for the new pig pen to go up, the way you explain it really makes it exciting.
All the best to you and Hillary, and kids.
Ralph from South Wales UK.
I really like what you're saying! It sounds like a GREAT idea!! With the already established pens you have your separation for temperament issues as well as 6 week suckling/weaning time!! Excited to see the transformation!!
You are a very wise man. Your plan sounds well thought out success will come. Congradulations.
I think it’s a great concept and hits that sweet spot between pig autonomy and human support. I say time for implementation.
Hey Pete, love they way you look after your animals mate, it is so good to see, love it
Reg down under
Thanks for the in-depth poultry discussion. There is always more to learn!
That is how my dad raised pigs for years.
Never thought I'd get excited about someone else's pig barn🐽
Love the new bedding!! Pigs keep you smiling.
Nice to see you've found the "Easy Button" in what direction your taking, thanks for sharing with us
We raised Tamworth pigs essentially how you described , they got along very well we did have a farrowing area for the sows to use but once the piglets were a few weeks old ( 3,4 ) they went t with the rest of the clan . We had a boar pen outside with a house for them as winter in Alberta can be brutal it was filled with straw. The other area we had was a pig pasture decided in 4 areas one of my jobs was tilling the just used 1/4 and planting what ever quick germination leftover seed we had usually barely once it was knee high they got to go in and graze , happy pig they were! One run close to the farrowing barn always had a summer mud wallow and a shade area . My mother grew a huge 2 1/2 acres garden everything that was not going to be used was sent over the fence to the pigs , they could see us working in the garden and would call out to use trying to get some treats , they were like pets you could walk in the pig pasture and they would be like dogs and follow you around to get scratches and loved up.
Good Luck!
Wow great idea. Love your videos!!!
Excited to see it all come together!! Enjoying learning from you Pete. Thanks.
Bill Boy is magnificent.
I grew up raising pigs the way you are planning to go. It worked very well and time involved was minimal. Hogs paid the mortgage, crops and cattle were just a gamble. Good Luck.
I am so excited to see how this all works out for you Pete! Happy pigs make good eat'n. Huzzah!
Another great video Pete thank you for the time and effort you put into these things you share with us .
Hey Pete good video used to raise pigs years ago have a suggestion for you to think about in the planning of your building that the waters should be outside of the bedding area as they tend to use that area as the rest room again just a suggestion
I like this new plan! Closer to nature.
Thank you very much Your videos are great
I really like this idea vs the first one you had. I see somel farms do the same around me, they call them "Free range pigs"
Some even plant a few trees on their pasture, gives them shade. And if you plant trees like acorns etc, they provide some calories and something for the pigs to forage for. And gives the meat an unique flavor compared to eating only grain, without much cost. Giving your pig meat even more reasons for having a premium cost.
Another good video Pete. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.
I had my sows and my boar on open pasture altogether, and I never had any social issues between them. and they all we're basically a gigantic big happy family.
Pete what I do here in N.C I have a lot fenced for my sows and I leave my boar in this pen. After I wean my pigs I turn the sow back in the lot with my big hogs and when my sow is about a week before having pigs i bring them in and start over. Works well for me
I think you have this figured out 100% now Pete. Sounds like a great plan to me.
I am currently running my pigs the way you are going to. It works great.
Does having your breeding stock on free feed cause any issues? I'd like to do the same but I don't want them larger than they should be..
You're so interesting!
Thank you.
Pete, looking forward to the new "pig parlor". Too many naysayers when it comes to someone else's thoughrs.
Pete ... AWESOME ... cant wait to see the new plan unfold
Your co-hab idea seems so obvious once you explain it. Plus you get to keep your junk where its at!! BONUS!!!
Great video pete can't wait to see you in action with your plans thank you for sharing
Thanks for the video,let’s get started
So excited to see the plan come together!
I love your idea why don't you build on the other side of the barn also and you got some nice Sal's right there that you could start your own breeding by Billy Little Billy