By MEGGIE I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor

NEW SALEM, Ind. — Animal welfare groups are pushing hog producers and processors to stop raising pregnant sows in metal gestation crates and the industry is responding.

Central Indiana producer Mark Hoeing, who operates Karla Farms, a 2,000 breed-to-wean hog operation in New Salem, Ind., is doing his part to react to changes in the industry by gestating most of his sows in hoop barns filled with nearly two feet of deep-bedded cornstalks and straw.

While gestation crates keep sows in individual stalls during the bust of their pregnancy, hoop barns offer a group atmosphere, where every pig has room to play, burrow and rest, according to Hoeing.

Considered an alternative method to gestating sows, deep-bedded group housing is seen by many traditional operators as best suited for smaller farms. However, recent research from Iowa State University (ISU) shows that gestating sows in bedded hoop barns could be less costly and just as productive as gestation crates.

“What we found was that there appears to be only slight differences in pig performance between the two,” said Mark Honeymoon, professor of animal science and coordinator of ISU’s Research Farms.

Hoeing agrees and said that he has not seen any dramatic changes in performance of his sows. Hoeing averages nine to 10 pigs per litter, which is more or less consistent with numbers seen in raising sows in gestation barns.

Karla Farms built the first three of nine hoop barns in 1996 to “fatten hogs” or finish them to market weight. At that time, Hoeing was operating a single site farrow-to-finish hog operation and “no one was building hoop barns to finish hogs.”

“Everyone thought I was crazy,” he said. “I read about them (hoop barns) in a farm magazine and thought they sounded interesting. I learned as much about it as I could.”

By 1999, Hoeing and his family were forced to depopulate the hog herd thanks to an unfortunate influx of a lung disease, resulting in “tremendous death loss” across the board. In 2000, Hoeing, 44, decided to repopulate the herd and switch the operation to a breed-to-wean farm. To accomplish this, he organized contracts with four Indiana farmers in Kokomo, Ind.; Shelbyville, Ind.; Greenfield, Ind. and Rushville, Ind., who agreed to purchase approximately 140 weaned baby pigs per week per farm.

When Hoeing realigned the farm to operate as a farrowing unit, he transitioned the existing three hoop barns into buildings used to gestate sows in groups of 80 in the winter and 60 in the summer. Soon after, Hoeing expanded his sow herd to 2000 and built an additional six hoop barns.

“Again, everyone thought I was a little crazy,” joked Hoeing. “We needed to use the existing buildings to house the additional sows and it just worked out really well for us.”

“Everyone has been really happy with them and our herd health is great.”

Cost of hoop barns

One of the biggest attractions to the buildings is the cost. Honeymoon said that recent ISU studies show that the building, equipment and management of hoop barns is less costly than a traditional sow barn with gestation crates.

According to Hoeing, one of his hoop barns cost $10,000-$11,000 to build, which includes a 10-year warranty on the canvas top.
In the ISU study, Honeymoon found that the estimated construction cost per sow is about $500, which includes a feeding stall unit. On Hoeing’s farm, the approximate cost is less than $200 per sow, since his barns do not include individual feeding stalls.

“It’s a trade off of labor for the expense of building and maintenance,” said Hoeing.

According to Honeymoon, the average cost to build a comparable gestation barn would be around $815 per pig, nearly two thirds the cost to build a hoop barn. Additional expenditures of a gestation barn include a climate control system, crates, water line, feeders, augers, pit, slat flooring, electricity and a ventilation system.

“In my barns there is little maintenance, our set-up cost was low and there is no electricity to manage,” said Hoeing.

In contrast, Hoeing said the bedding does require some maintenance, because the barns need to be deep-bedded and bedded often.

“That is one of the most important aspects to raising sows in hoop barns,” he admits. “In the winter, we bed twice a week using three to four round cornstalk bales at a time. In the summer, we bed once a week.”

Last year, Hoeing baled nearly 2000 cornstalk bales on approximately 150 acres and purchased additional bales and straw as necessary.

Cleaning the barns is also another aspect unique to the management of hoop barns versus a traditional gestation barn.

“We clean the barns out after every group or about once a week.”
In one barn, the manure and bedding can accumulate up to two feet, making for about 14 to 16 full manure spreader loads. And
Hoeing’s manure spreader is a “big one” holding up to 20 tons per load. When Hoeing isn’t able to spread the manure on a field, it is stock piled or used in a compost pile.

To clarify, Karla Farm hogs do not spend all of their time in the hoop barns. The sows are kept in gestation crates for six to seven days to be bred, then moved to pens of 10 for three weeks, where they are “preg-checked every Friday.”

“Everyone that is pregnant goes to a hoop barn, where they will be for about two months,” he said.

A slow transition from crates

For the industry, it will be a slow transition away from gestation crates, according to Mike Platt, executive director of Indiana Pork.

“There are going to be opportunities for producers to operate differently and stand out as a competitive advantage,” said Platt.
“The packers are going to be driving the movement away from the gestation crates, based on consumer input. Big voices such as Burger King will also drive new changes in the industry and dictate what those changes will be.”

As the hog industry continues to shift in new directions, Mark Hoeing agrees change is a good thing and producers need to learn to adapt.

“The livestock industry is unpredictable sometimes, so I knew if I built this type of barns, they could be used for something else in the future,” said Hoeing.

Karla Farms is operated by Hoeing and has been family owned since 1963 by the John Swisher family of JBS United Feeds. Hoeing with his wife Lori have been operating the farm on halves with Swisher since 1985, when he started with only 30 farrowing crates. Hoeing, who grew up with seven brothers in southern Rush County is also the parent of three sons: Doug, 22; Nathan, 19 and Ben, 17. Hoeing and Lori, his wife of nearly 24 years also farm 700 acres and Lori runs a catering business on the side.