Plainview Hutterite Colony near Elkhorn, Manitoba held the grand opening of its new finisher barn last month, the largest hog finisher barn in Canada. With over 120,000 square feet, the barn made almost entirely of concrete, stainless steel, and plastic has 18 large finisher rooms, plus numerous isolation rooms, sorting rooms, storage rooms, and more.

It can hold up to 15,000 pigs at a time, uses the latest in technology, including auto feeders capable of handling multiple feed types, a primary heated water system, overhead sprinkler, washers/misters, LED lighting, and auto scrapers in all the under-barn pits.

The Hog Boss for the Plainview Colony is Peter David Waldner said the colony has around 24 families, 110 people including men, women, and children.

“In farming, we’ve had an 8000 chicken layer quota, farm 10,000 acres, with most of our land in Saskatchewan, which is one mile from us to the west, and we have an older existing barn which is in excellent shape, it’s a 500 sow-farrow to finish, built I think in early ’80s, late ’70s, and it’s still in production,” said Waldner. “In 2007, we built a 1300 sow barn with a nursery finishing the pigs off-site selling some pigs into the U.S. for two years. In 2010 we started renting barns, and as of today we have 10,000 pigs away from home that we own in eight different rented barns in Manitoba.”

In early 2017, the colony decided to build a finisher barn, received the permit in May 2017 and construction started June/July first having outside contractors build the shell and the rest workers from the colony moved in March/April of 2018 to finish the rest.

The new barn has 18 auto sort rooms which will hold 700 pigs per room. The is another room that holds 600 pigs with pens to do whatever like just to treat the pigs or whatever, and a 500 head load-out and also two rooms that hold 180 gilts to raise their in-house gilts.

“Well once this barn is in full production we’ll have 1,800 sows farrow to finish,” said the Hog Boss. “And I think if everything goes well and the blessings come our way we have the opportunity to market 48,000 to 50,000 pigs a year.”

Technology is vital to the Plainview Colony hog operation as Waldner points out the feeding system is second to none with four loops per side of the barn and each 50-pound pig that enters the facility has access to four different feeding rations until the pig is ready for market.

“The scale does not only sort the pigs, but the pigs have to go through the three-way scale, and at any given time we’ll have the opportunity to feed three different feed rations in every room,” said Waldner. “For example take one room we can feed the lightest 20 per cent of the pigs a higher protein energy diet. Where the biggest 20 per cent was growing so fast, they don’t need that rich feed. And then the mediums they take the regular feed.”

He said with those four rations and three feed kitchens in every room as the pigs go through the scale it directs them into the kitchen according to its weight.

“At the time of shipping time, you close off those blue gates in the auto-sort pens, and that’s where those pigs remain. As their weight increases, they move them down into the fenced-in area in the load-out area,” he said.

Waldner said their current sow barns, still in good condition use stalls to house their sows and the colony has no immediate plans to change them over to group housing.

“I mean we’re gonna wait it out. We think we’re still doing the very best for these pigs. Like I have no problem taking people through our barn because I have my sows in gestation stalls which are fairly big,” he said. “They’re a bit over seven feet long and 24 inches wide. It’s not that they’re cramped in there. It’s an eight-year-old barn making it difficult to rip everything out and replace it because our production is second to none.”

Waldner said the colony obtained a partial permit for the barn and lagoon use back in ’08 and built lagoon storage in ’09 all ready to finish it. However, several factors put the rest of the project on hold one is a downturn in the hog industry.

Getting the permit was quite simply a couple of meetings with the rural municipality, no pushback from the neighbours making it quite easy.

“If somebody comes up to us and tells them something negative on our farm, we listen, and we try to adjust, and I think that went a long way,” he said. “When we went to the municipality to get those permits it was unreal. Like we didn’t have to sit there with 500 pages of documents and to try to explain to them what we’re doing. We’re building these barns for our kids’ kids. And all we want to do is raise healthy food. We’re not here to abuse animals, and we want to farm and do it in a healthy and prosperous way.” •

— By Harry Siemens