Wide variations in building design, barn equipment, construction, management and other operational systems contribute to added costs and inefficiencies in hog barns. These variabilities make it difficult to develop improvement measures and they cannot be applied from barn to barn as they are all so different. There are not applicable standards to help guide producers in this area which may account for some of the variability. A four-fold difference in total energy usage was noted in barn that implemented energy-employing practices and those that did not. Animal welfare concerns could also be diminished by applying standards to loading ramps, pen walls, floor slat designs, floor surface roughness and alleyways. Existing operational systems were benchmarked in order to develop recommendations for optimization and standardization of these various systems. 14 key areas were identified as areas that could benefit from optimization and standardization efforts.
Benchmarking and Standardization of Swine Production Systems (full article)
