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A Double First for Roundhouse Building
Disease and welfare Environmental management Heating and ventilation Pig Welfare
6 February 2009, at 8:54am
SCOTLAND, UK - Roundhouse Buildings Solutions Ltd (RBSL), the makers of the innovative, award winning Roundhouse livestock building, has recently completed its first dual installation site for Strathmore Farming Company at Glamis, Angus, Scotland.
It is also the first major Roundhouse installation on a conventional pig farm, although there is also a building at the well known organic farm at Sheepdrove, in Berkshire, which houses finishing pigs from time to time.
Each of Strathmore's Roundhouses will house around 260 of the farm's dry sows, with the building chosen because of its ease of stock management, excellent visibility and welfare friendly nature, says Strathmore's Farm Director David Soutar. The animals quickly adapted to the new environment and are extremely happy and contented, he reports.
"As soon as we saw the Roundhouse we realised that it would be ideal for housing dry sows. They would still be on deep straw with plenty of ventilation, but compared with moveable housing outdoors in paddocks the management and staff welfare would be much improved without compromising our Freedom Foods accreditation," he adds. "Tangible benefits such as feed savings, easier handling and improved breeding performance are expected to make the investment sound."
The building has a 30.25m diameter, a 95m circumference, and normally a combined area of 720m2, which can be split into as many as eight segments. However Strathmore has "stretched" the area available by utilizing the space to the outside of the roofed area, which wouldn't normally be done for cattle, and which gives an area of 900m2. At Freedom Foods stocking densities this allows for 250 sows, although the stocking rate for "conventional" sows could be more.
Beef, dairy, pig and deer farmers are all becoming increasingly attracted to the building, says RBSL's managing director Geoff Simpson. This is because of its stock friendly environment, and because the ease of management of the buildings allows more animals to be managed without a significant increase in labour. Its round shape allows a stockman to walk into the centre of the building, where he will then have a 360 degree view of the stock. An integral, but optional, handling system in the centre of the building also simplifies management.
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