Poll Recap: Sweeping Horse Barn Aisles

Feb 20, 2015

Do you keep your barn aisles in your barn neat and tidy, or is it one of the chores that gets overlooked? In last week’s online poll, we asked our readers how often they swept or raked their horse barn aisles. More than 1,350 people responded and we’ve tallied the results!

Of the 1,370 respondents, 374 (27%) said they sweep their barn aisles once a day, and 342 individuals (25%) said their barn aisle is swept each time it is used by a horse. Another 240 respondents (18%) sweep their barn aisles as needed throughout the week, but not daily. Some 175 people (13%) said they sweep their aisles after each feeding, and 34 respondents (2%) said they sweep their aisles once a week. The remaining 205 respondents (15%) either said they didn’t have a barn aisle or chose "other."

Source: TheHorse

Video: Validating Net Energy in Commercial Swine Systems - Gustavo Lima

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Gustavo Lima, PhD candidate at Iowa State University, explains how soybean meal net energy is evaluated using growth assays and calorimetry. He discusses caloric efficiency, validation under commercial conditions, and differences between controlled and real-world environments. Gustavo also highlights practical implications for diet formulation and ingredient valuation. Listen now on all major platforms!

“Indirect calorimetry provides a precise estimation of ingredient energy, yet validation under production conditions remains essential for accurate application in real systems.”

Meet the guest: Gustavo Lima / gustavo-lima-a9867127 is a PhD candidate in Animal Science at Iowa State University, specializing in swine nutrition, ingredient evaluation, and energy metabolism. With over 15 years of experience across Latin America, his work focuses on soybean meal utilization, caloric efficiency, and applied research for commercial production systems.