January / February, 2001

Book Details How to Develop Swine Breeding and Gestation Facilities

MidWest Plan Service (MWPS) has just released the book Swine Breeding and Gestation Facilities Handbook, MWPS-43, the third publication in a three-part series on swine housing and management. This book provides builders and swine producers with a thorough explanation of the process and challenges of constructing and managing a swine breeding and gestation facility.

Proper design and management of a breeding and gestation facility should enhance animal management and movement and increase labor efficiency, animal well being, and worker safety. Breeding and gestation building needs to be designed so it enhances the reproductive processes of the animals it houses.

Throughout MWPS-43, the focus is on the specific demands of the breeding and gestation facility. It meets a variety of audience needs by combining discussions of housing management options with discussions of building layouts and equipment needs along with the discussions of management, layouts and equipment. Other chapters explain manure handling options, environmental control systems, and utility requirements.

The book is extensively illustrated, with approximately 60 figures showing specific examples of the concepts being discussed. Also included are more than 40 tables, equations, and examples that provide detailed specifications for space requirements, manure production volume, ventilation rates, insulation levels, and light levels. Appendixes to the book contain worksheets and forms for determining sow, gilt, and boar inventories.

MWPS-43, Swine Breeding and Gestation Facilities Handbook, was prepared under the direction of the Livestock Production Facilities Committee of MWPS. Publication authors are as follows: Jay Harmon, associate professor and extension agricultural engineer at Iowas State University; Donald Levis, former professor and extension swine specialist at the University of Nebraska and now at The Ohio State University; J. M. Zulovich, assistant professor and extension agricultural engineer at the University of Missouri; Steven Hoff, associate professor of agricultural engineering at Iowa State University; and Gerald Bodman, retired associate professor and extension agricultural engineer at the University of Nebraska. MWPS is a cooperative research and extension organization representing the 12 land-grant universities of the North Central Region of the United States.

Other publications in the swine housing series from MWPS are Swine Housing and Equipment Handbook, MWPS-8; Swine Farrowing Handbook: Housing and Equipment, MWPS-40; and Swine Nursery Facilities Handbook, MWPS-41. Swine Breeding and Gestation Facilities Handbook, MWPS-43, costs $15.00 per single copy.

Price includes tax and shipping. To order MWPS-43, send a check (sorry we do not except credit card orders) or money order to:

Plan Service Secretary
216 Farrall Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824-1323

Click here to view other Midwest Plan Service Publications

Agricultural Engineering
Michigan State University
A.W. Farrall Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824-1323
(517) 355-4720

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