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12
Better Pork
December 2016
COMPUTERIZED
HOG
BARN
Dianne and Francis Brekelmans
settled on a farm called Nether-
end Acres near Thamesford in the
mid-1980s to raise grower-finisher
pigs as part of a family business.
The couple purchased the farm from
Francis’s father in 1993.
When an opportunity arose in
2001 to concentrate on sows, the
Brekelmans began with an open-
housing system. Ever since, they
have worked to perfect techniques
that minimize competition be-
tween sows living in groups.
Both adult sons, Calvin and
Travis, have decided on careers
at Netherend Acres, which was
named for the Dutch heritage of
both sides of the family and for the
Zorra Township side road that ends
in a bush near the family farm.
As a result, the family has under-
taken renovations and built new
facilities to increase the size of the
breeding herd from 3,700 to about
5,000 sows.
When construction neared
completion in early October, the
Brekelmans were poised to begin
moving pigs into the new barns.
Their operation includes Gestal ESF
equipment, which they mainly use
to eliminate the
competition inherent in their origi-
nal systems. With Waterloo-based
consultant Blair Gordon, Gestal’s
Ontario representative, the Brekel-
mans designed a
system with three feeders per
35-sow pen.
The system allows each animal
to eat in protected stalls operated
by radio frequency identification
(RFID) tags to track individual ra-
tions.
The Brekelmans have adjusted
their group housing arrangements
in gradual steps: they have moved
from using open floor drops to
shoulder stalls capable of individual
feeding. Each step brought produc-
tivity improvements.
“We’re really hoping now with
the technology (that) we can cater
to (the pigs) and feed them individ-
ually,” Dianne said in a recent inter-
view as workers from Sebringville-
based general
contractor FGC Ltd. completed the
final details. “It’s non-
competitive, so we can address the
individual needs of every animal in
that pen.”
Dianne expects improved feed
efficiency and productivity “be-
cause we can have these animals in
a more uniform condition.”
Netherend Acres, which
employs 14 people, manages its
sow herd and farrowing operations
in seven buildings. The operation
sells three-week-old piglets mainly
to Quebec buyers. The Brekelmans
expect the new barns to reach ca-
pacity by early spring of 2017.
They picked JYGA Technology’s
Quebec-made Gestal equipment
(one of two Canadian ESF systems
available) mainly because of “sim-
plicity,” Dianne said. A conventional
power chain
delivers dry feed to each station
which drops individual rations
through hard-wired, computer-
controlled dispensers to protected
individual feeding stations.
“We do a lot of backfat test-
ing, and the range is too wide in a
competitive system,” Dianne said.
Better management of individual
feeding should produce “a more
consistent-sized animal.” Better
control should also increase pro-
duction efficiency, she said.
Francis and Dianne moved to au-
tomatic feeders now because they
have identified desirable improve-
ments in available ESF equipment.
The Brekelmans moved only three
years ago to head-station feeders.
At that time, they had avoided ESFs
because they “didn’t think it was
there yet,” Francis said.
“I think we went for simplicity as
the number one reason,” Francis
said. The family chose Gestal from
a wide range of available options
from North American and European
manufacturers. “The other ones,
they’re great I’m sure, but there
just seems to be a lot more moving
parts, more air valves . . . plus train-
ing” for the animals, he said of the
earlier designs that he had seen in
operation.
Gestal, designed and built by a
group of St–Lambert-de-Lauzon,
Que. hog farmers, dispenses daily
feed allowances in increments
without water, which is available
elsewhere in the group pens.
Gestal equipment operates with in-
house software, but the company
has begun talks about possible
coordination with two well-known
software developers of more com-
mon hog-management programs,
Gestal’s Gordon said.
BP
ESFequipment strengthens this farrow-
to-weanoperation
The Brekelmans picked the Gestal
ESF equipment mainly because of
“simplicity,” according to Dianne.