12 —Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 21,1978 New swine confinement system Swine research associate Ralph Lowe holds the snout of one of the Substation Swine Unit’s new gilts while his assistant, Kip Foskey, earmarks her for identification purposes. The unit’s 64 gilts arrived the week after Thanksgiving and have all been bred for a Spring farrowing. ★ A OfN HOllS* ★ “ OF OUR NEW BUILDING ,«***** SHOW-EASE STALL CO. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25,1978 ALL PARTS 10% “ N ' \ DOVER, Del. - Delaware swine producers have become more sophisticated in recent years, graduating from the “woodlot” type of operation - practiced by the all-purpose farmers who kept a few feeder pigs rooting around the barnyard - to the “confinement” system, in which all or part of the operaton is enclosed in buildings. This new system allows farmers to specialize in swine production, giving them better control of the breeding, gestation and farrowing of their hogs. But the idea of raising hogs completely indoors is new to many Delaware farmers and the confinement system is not without problems. Thus, it assist those swine producers now wishing to upgrade their operations and to demonstrate the myriad 573 WLIOW ROM), LANCASTER PA. ORDER I \t LANCASTER i SILO OR - MANURE PIT , J SPECIAL EARLY x.' ijj ORDER DISCOUNT ~%SE& ORDER ANY BADGER EQUIPMENT AT A SPECIAL DISCOUNT TALK TO US ABOUT OUR LEASING PROGRAM GENERAL CONTRACTOR: ELAM LANTZ, RONKS PA. new developments m swine production, the University of Delaware has designed and built a new Swine Research Unit at the University of Delaware Substation near Georgetown. “The purpose of the unit is strictly functional,” explains Extension livestock specialist Richard Fowler, who, along with a committee of swine producers led by William Gordy, Laurel, was instrumental in developing the unit. “We will be mainly demonstrating good swine production practices and trying to help Delaware farmers solve their practical production problems...we will not be doing basic research.” The unit was completed last fall and technically opened when Ralph Lowe, a young graduate of the University of Delaware’s studied in Del, College of Agricultural Sciences, was hired in Oc tober. But the unit really went into operation when the University’s swine herd-60 gilts and six boars-arrived the week after Thanksgiving. The feeder pig production unit, designed to hold a total of 84 sows, consists of two 10- crate farrowing rooms, a nursery and a breeding and gestation house. It also has a flush waste system with 8 A.M. TO 9 P.M. OPEN HOUSE SPECIAL j|C ON LOG CHAINS « Mi 14 FT. LONG List Price Sale Price 1/4” 11.50 7.00 5/16" 19.60 11.50 31.70 18.00 7/16” 47.40 26.00 1/2" 54.50 30.00 An Extra 5% Cash Discount lagoons which serve as a research disposal system. “Delaware has had a shift in intensity oi hog produc tion,” says Fowler. ‘Pro ducers have gone from a low capital investment with little or no equipment to a more intense operation with confinement buildings. And when the farmers spend the money for these facilities, they must expand produc tion and sell more pigs m order to pay for it” (Turn to Page 13)
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