Pig Nursery Built From Old Trucks

Pig nursery built from old trucks HOG EQUIPMENT & IDEAS Hog Equipment & Ideas (351) 10-5-29 Eugene Holt, Oneida, Ill. and his two sons, Gary and Michael, developed a "cool" idea for a pig nursery last year. They bought three refrigerated semi-trailers and placed them side-by-side on a concrete foundation. The Holts came up with the idea after they heard about Nebraska farmers who used abandoned, underground Army ammunition dumps, Colorado farmers who used boxcars, and other pork producers who remodeled mobile homes for swine use. The farming trio attached the nursery trailers to an existing building and built a lean-to on the front of the trailers. A big advantage was that they didn't have to insulate the trailers, which they heat with natural gas. A heat exchanger that recycles exhausted warm air was installed at the rear of the unusual nursery, and the trailers were wired for electricity. Each trailer contains 10 pens that hold nine pigs each. Waste collects in concrete pits poured on the trailer floors beneath the pens. The Holts bought the 40-ft. trailers for $1,800 each from a salvage yard.

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