Winter weather requires constant vigilance to maintain pig health and barn infrastructure. After all, Murphy’s Law that “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong,” is almost always true in the dead of winter.
“During the first real cold of the year, there is always a heater that doesn’t kick on or a water line that freezes up,” said Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS, during the recent State of the Pork Industry Report. “Things just happen during that first cold snap.”
Freezing Failures
For Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity, the biggest challenge his team faced during the recent snowstorm occurred on an empty site as it started to fill with pigs.
“You try to take all the precautions and do the right things,” Kuker says. “We were starting up a feed line that had some frozen ice in it, then the PVC snapped. Now we had to try to repair a PVC line in the cold temperatures – that’s not fun.”
When the snow starts to fall, Kuker encourages producers to make sure they clear snow away from tunnel curtains to prevent gaps and check pit fans for drifts to ensure proper airflow. Additionally, monitoring snow load on roofs is essential to prevent structural collapse.
“Winter brings a lot of challenges and keeps you on your toes, and that’s just outside the barn,” Kuker says. “That doesn’t even take into account inside the barn.”
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