BOW ISLAND, Alta. – If an innovative hog farm measures up to its publicity, people living in this south-central Alberta town won’t know a 1,200 sow operation is practically next door.
Located five kilometres south Bow Island, PureLean Hogs Inc. projects this farrow-to-finish operation will be selling market hogs in March 2000.
The farm is unique because there is no manure spreading or lagoons. All wastes are to be composted in a building beside the barn.
“It’s a concrete box. It’s totally contained,” said company president Bob Notenbomer. “We’re processing our wastes before we take it out of the building.”
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Ordinarily, a hog farm of this size would require a six million gallon lagoon.
But with this design, the composting happens in a building where in about four weeks, sawdust used for bedding, mixed with manure, will have broken down and be ready for spreading on fields or for sale to home gardeners.
The company is financed by about 50 southern Alberta investors who are willing to take a risk on an environmentally friendly hog barn, said Todd Boschee, vice-president of the company.
“The most exciting thing for the investors was the composting,” said Boschee.
Roomy quarters
Land is being cleared to build a single barn 1,100 feet long by 250 feet wide. The barn has 60,000 sq. feet more than a typical barn housing 1,200 sows. More square footage gives the pigs more freedom to move and exercise.
Bedded down in 10 centimetres of sawdust, the pigs will live in pens on heated solid concrete floors. The floors are sloped to a centre gutter and will be cleaned daily. To make sure the pigs defecate toward the gutter, automatic feeders will be placed on the opposite side of the pen.
There are no gestation stalls or farrowing crates.
In addition, there will be a glassed-in observation deck where school tours or the public can visit.
Notenbomer said this concept of raising pigs is compatible with new animal husbandry rules being passed in Europe, where sows are being released into open pens and growing pigs are provided with more exercise room.
Besides keeping the barns free of liquid manure and odor, the plan is to sell the hogs as drug free. Medications will only be used for sick animals that have been separated and treated in hospital pens.
Notenbomer and Boschee built a similar barn five years ago on a smaller scale near Bow Island. While that first barn was far from perfect, they found the composting system works and can offer an efficient way to raise hogs.
