Many operations post Farmweld's Guide to Proper Feeder Adjustment in barns and include them as pad of a production manual.

When Triple Edge Pork, Chandlerville, IL, needed a tool to help contract feeders and barn employees learn about proper feeder adjustment, co-owner Stan Edge picked up the phone and called 1-800-EAT-PORK He'd seen Farmweld's Guide to Proper Feeder Adjustment and thought the laminated photo would be just the thing to demonstrate what feed pans should look like at his operation's 60-70 production sites located throughout the Midwest.

"We felt we were probably wasting some feed," says Edge, who invited employees and contractors to a company meeting last July to discuss proper feeder adjustment and the use of the feeder adjustment guides. The guides also became part of Triple Edge's production manual, where policies and procedures for caring for pigs are explained. So far, the guides seem to be working. "We have noticed better conversions," says Edge.

"It has been much easier with a visual aid to impress the importance of proper feeder adjustment," says Rick Menzel, a Triple Edge field representative. "The growers and employees are doing a far better job of adjusting the feeders," Menzel says.

Ron Ness, a wean-to-finish producer in Hinckley, IL, says the guides are helping him and his two employees do a better job of managing the feeders too, especially for nursery pigs. "They are real useful for keeping everyone - including myself - reminded of how tight the feeders can be set and still do a good job," says Ness.

The guides axe a case where, "a picture teaches 1,000 words," says Dr. Jim Lowe, a consulting veterinarian with the Carthage (IL) Veterinary Service, Ltd. Lowe has used the Farmweld guides extensively to teach clients and clients' employees. He advises that they be posted in barns where barn workers can easily reference them.

"Getting feeders adjusted properly is one of the big things we can manage to control feed efficiency," says Lowe. He says that proper adjustment easily yields a one to two tenths of a pound improvement in feed:gain ratios. For every tenth of a pound improvement, he says that producers realize about $1 extra profit per head. "In a 1,000 head unit, that's a $2,000 return just by doing nothing but keeping feeders adjusted the way they should be," says Lowe.

Laminated copies of Farmweld's Guide to Proper Feeder Adjustment for nurseries or finishing barns are provided with each new feeder order or are available to purchase for $2.00.