Galen and Sara Johnson, partners of Grandview Hogs of Dodge Center, MN, appreciate how well Farmweld's nursery components go together and work together. A few years ago the Johnsons remodeled their farrowing and finishing barns into approximately 3,200 nursery spaces.

'We had a variety of room dimensions and pit dimensions," says Galen, who says he expected it to be harder than it was to revamp the breeding herd barns into production nursery units. The Johnsons provided Farmweld with dimensions for each of the eight barns, along with some preliminary ideas about how they wanted things to work. Then, just a couple of weeks later, Farmweld's designers presented drawings of each room. The drawings showed details about panel and floor beam placement, gating configurations, as well as, feeder and waterer placement.

The drawings were very exact and very "user-friendly, " recalls Galen. Me equipment came packaged and labeled to fit together." Farmweld assigns each ordered item a number to correspond to a particular room, so unloading and routing materials is as simple as "this goes to this building, that goes to this building, etc.," says Galen. In addition, he says, deliveries were timed according to their construction schedule. "It was all like a puzzle. What we said we were going to do on paper worked out right."

Since the nurseries have been up and running, the Johnsons have been very impressed with how well they have performed even compared to new nurseries built at the operation. Death losses are lower in the remodeled barns than in the new buildings. And rate of gain and feed conversion are slightly better. Galen says the Farmweld Nursery Feeders adjust easily, waste little feed and are easy to clean.

Plastic flooring offers excellent pig comfort and allows the rooms to be kept at low temperatures after entry compared to rooms with metal flooring, according to Galen. He says the feet and legs on the nursery pigs, which range in weight from ten to 105 pounds, have been excellent,

"If You remodel properly – with the right equipment and careful attention to ventilation – older buildings can perform as well or bow than new ones,' says Galen.