It has been near 40 years since I left high school, and Dad’s hog farm. He used about 10 Pride of the Farm crates, and 6 if another brand. We cemented in the floor of the building to clean between bunches, and fumigated each time we emptied the building – took up the crates, hosed them off, cleaned, and fumigated. We hung 2″ styrofoam for a suspended ceiling, and paneled over the walls with light plywood. Heat was a propane heater, but never really warm.

The crates used 1×12 floor boards, both to keep the crate in place , and to keep the sow off the cement floor. The sides of the sow part were high and low rails, with vertical pickets. The pickets weren’t particularly close together, maybe 6″ space? The rails weren’t adjustable. The top rail was about 36″, the bottom about 7-9″ somewhere. The crate was about 6 foot long.

The frame in front and behind the sow on the Pride of the Farm had a peak in the center of the top. Rails ran near the top from front to back, so a sow could not rear up and flip over, or climb out of the crate. The other brand crates had a removable rack that clamped onto the top side rails for a sow that was anxious, fighting the crate, etc.

The door on the pride of the farm was a removable hatch, a wire panel on a frame made of the same pipe as the rest of the frame; it had a low cross-bar longer than the door was wide that dropped into clips mounted about the same height as the bottom side rails, so the door tilted back to open. There was a sliding latch on the door to clip over the crate frame, to hold the door in place. The other crates had a side-hinged door.

The Pride of the Farm crates let the sow back all the way up to the back door. We stuck a 2×4 through the last picket, to hold her 6 inches from the door. This reduced wear on the door, and kept her from trying to farrow while mashing her back end against something solid. The other crates had a 2″ band of heavy steel, formed into a squared bumper, fastened to the door, for the same reason.

Both crates used 2″ spaced 1/4″ pickets for the front panel, with cross bars. The Pride of the Farm might have use a 1″ top and bottom band, and 1/8″ or 3/16″ pickets.

The crates were made to bolt together in a series. Between the sow parts was a front and back panel to keep the pigs in. That might have been 24 or 30 inches high, but not as tall as the side panels in the crate, I don’t think. Too low, though, might invite the sow to jump into the side part.

We put a 1×10 or 1×12 for a divider between crates, with another 6 inch board on time, I think. These boards helped block breezes, and gave a place to hang baby pig waterers and feeders. We usually hung a heat lamp, infrared, with real heat lamp fixtures (ceramic sockets) intended for 250 watt bulbs. When born, the lamp hung fairly low, and we raised it as they got older, needed less heat, and got big enough to bang the light around. We used wood shavings for bedding for the pigs, for preference, straw or ground corn cobs if we had to. Usually the shavings had less dust.

Dad turned the sows out together for an hour, morning and night, pushed them outside, fed them in a trough or at a self-feeder, and automatic waterer. I think much of PETA’s griping is about the people that install waterers and feeders in the crate, then don’t have to turn the sow out at all until the pigs are ready to wean.

Except in winter, Dad pastured his hogs. The constant exercise and grass (alfalfa) with his feeding program usually got pigs to market quickly at good weight. One bunch was 5 months, 2 days. Our of 120 or so, maybe 40 were estimated 180 pounds or more. D That batch, like most of the hogs Dad sold, graded really well, about $1.50 a hundred weight, sold yield and grade. A half dozen went from 220 to 250. We didn’t have any pets, usually, but the pigs were well cared for. Our neighbors thought Dad silly, giving up alfalfa ground (10-15 acres) for hog pasture. But the hogs did well. We rotated the pasture every two years. Either put up fence in the spring, or take it down in the fall. Again, the rotation was manage disease, and the pasture was part of the crop rotation on the 1/4 section family farm.

Dad left a radio playing quietly in the hog house. A talk radio station from Yankton, South Dakota, I think. When we checked the pigs before going to bed, in case one started farrowing, the only light was the heat lamps, and mostly no noise except the hogs breathing. With the shavings for the baby pigs, it was one peaceful scene. Usually, just keeping reasonably quiet was enough, that we could slip in, look around, and leave – without disturbing any of them.

Dad kept a clip board, recording date of farrowing, the crate number, number of pigs. And marked off any losses. Since we had crates on either side of the wide (maybe 10-12 foot) central aisle, he numbered the sows on the north side with red paint, and green on the south. The number was sprayed on with a spray can, in big numbers, over the lower back. That way you could mark her while she stood in her crate, you could put the right sow back in the right crate where her litter waited. Most sows quickly learned which crate was hers, after an hour outside most were ready for some heavy duty nursing, and would bark to be let back into the crate.

We farrowed three times a year, and kept sows for two years. We sold the older sows off before they got *big* adult size – the thinking was they would eat more to maintain weight, and wouldn’t produce any healthier pigs, or more, than a young gilt. Dad rotated breeds, always used purebred stock – Duroc, Spotted Poland China, Chester White, Hampshire – were the ones he usually used, depending on what characteristics he wanted to see in the next litters. We kept gilts back when getting ready to turn over the older sows.

Back to the farrowing crates. You might check for TSC catalogs to see of you can find one, or your feed store – or ask around, if someone is using crates you can look at that you could take some pictures and measurements.

I did a Google search on “farrowing crate” – there seem to be a number of brands and sources. Check those, too, for specifications, dimensions, and illustrations.

The crates I have seen were steel. A hog can be a very strong critter when they get irritated or anxious, such as their first time in a crate. I imagine you could make one of wood, but you would have to be pretty careful about strength and how you fasten it together. I suppose you could use 2×4 pickets for the side panels, with 1/4″ carriage bolts, but that would provide less air flow around the sow and pigs. And a reasonable amount of air flow helps keep down ammonia, and suppresses many diseases.

Luck!

I worried a lot about the fish the first couple of winters.

I read a bit about pond fish. I got some goldfish food, pond type, and fed the fish every so often the first year, a couple times a week usually. Then it got to be less regular. But the book said to stop feeding in late fall when the water turns cold for the winter. These last couple of years I haven’t fed but two or three times, total. It doesn’t seem to matter.

I don’t use a tank heater. The tank is 2 feet deep, and in longer cold snaps the ice may get 4-7 inches thick. The pony (and cats, once the tank freezes over) drinking, and my opening the hole, seems to be all the fish need to tolerate the winter. Goldfish are members of the carp family, rough fish. I don’t believe it hurts them if the water freezes solid about them. Certainly, they tolerate swimming under the ice well – a form of hibernation.

My neighbor uses a tank heater, and the fish stay active even with a skim of ice around the edges. He has 12 calves, 2 llamas, and 9 pygmy goats drinking from the tank – there is plenty of debris (backwash) from the drinkers, apparently, to meet any nutritional needs of the fish.

Just like any water tank – the point is to keep the water from smelling sour. In summer the tank often gets green, and maybe even strands of algae show up. But a couple cloudy days sets back the algae growth, and the fish catch up. The water may be green with suspended small algae, but still smells fresh. When the smell turns, or a fish dies, it is (past!) time to siphon the muck off the bottom along with 1/4 the water. You don’t want the tank too clean, or change all the water (that is when I lose fish, just like with the aquarium), so letting the tank run over too long so you flush the whole tank a time or three, is the major problem.

I treat the fish just like I was putting them in an aquarium. Bring them home in their store-bag, and lay the bag, intact, in the tank. After a half hour the water in the bag and in the tank is well-synchronized for temperature. Then I gently open the bag, and use my hand like a slotted spoon to scoop the fish out of the water, and lay my hand on the top of the tank, and ease my hand down, to ease the fish into the tank. With an aquarium there is a concern that water from the store tank might carry some illness home, that would nail the fish already in your tank. This reduces that risk a bunch. I do it with the stock tank .. because it won’t hurt anything.

Note that the bright sunlight will keep the fish from getting very colorful, as will the all-algae diet. If you want to see more colorful fish, I guess you could put a partial cover over the tank (which also retains heat, keeps down dust and dirt, etc.).

Domestic animals get used to the darndest things. I can’t imagine fish in the water tank would be any stranger than watching us stick a hose in, or hear a float let go.

Luck!

Do you have any idea if this works during the winter in somewhere realy cold? It’s -25C outside now (really, really cold in Farenheit ) and it’ll be like that for weeks. We do have a tank heater in which keeps the water from freezing, although I don’t think it keeps it particularly *warm*.

Then again, there are no algae in the winter, so I suppose the fish could be brought in the house for the winter, and returned to the tank in spring. Hmmm.

What a great idea! My son would love a reduced-algae water trough … he hates scrubbing it out. Thank you for sharing! (I actually saw your note on Sharon’s blog and followed over from there … thanks!)

1)
Fading light / dims the sight,
And a star / gems the sky, / gleam – ing bright,
From a – far / draw – ing nigh,
Falls the night.

2)
Dear one rest! / In the west
Sable night / lulls the day / on her breast;
Sweet good – night! / Now a – way,
To thy rest.

3)
Love, sweet dreams! / Lo, the beams
Of the light / fairy moon / kiss the streams;
Love, good – night! / Ah, too soon!
Peace – ful Dreams!

Here is the link:

http://shelfreliance.com/search?q=grinder