Grow-Finish Facilities: Feed Delivery
| self feeders | auger/bin system | direct from mixer | feeder design | feeder weights |
Self Feeders (adjustment critical to control wastage)
Distribution (Auger/Bin and Direct from Mixer)
In this nursery and grow-finish barn, the auger (upper right corner shows the motor) pushes the food through pipes (seen overhead) and into the common feed bins (next picture). As a bin fills up, the food backs up into the pipe and travels forward to the next bin and so on through the barn.
The common feed bin is shown in use on the left. This bin is two-sided and shared by two pens of pigs, as can be seen on the right.
The herdsman filled a push cart (in front of him) with feed direct from the mixer and he is walking down the aisles and placing a scoop of feed in the common feed and water trough in betwen each pair of sows. Gestating sows on this farm receive 4 pounds of the feed a day.
Floor feeding works well, too.
Feeder Design, pigs/feeder space
Feeder Weights observations can allow fine-tuning
Copyright ©1997 by the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary
Medicine
Faculty: Dr. Paul Pitcher
Student: Sandra Springer,'99