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University of Minnesota Extension Swine team gives research updates through podcasts.
Hello and welcome to Minnesota's Swine and You podcast series, a University of Minnesota Extension Swine Program. Today's podcast is a discussion about fall and winter ventilation for our swine barns. My name is Sarah Sheik Belke, your host, and I'm an Extension Swine Educator with the University of Minnesota. Once again today I am sitting down with Lyle Lang and Mike Walker from Lang Ag Systems in Wilmer. So welcome, Lyle and Mike.
Speaker 2:Good morning, Sarah. Thanks for having us again.
Speaker 3:We're very glad to be here, Sarah, to go through what we all can do to make the transition to fall and winter season for confinement livestock operations, the best possible environment for our animals. That's our number one say. So let me say first, just to someone who might be listening to this, but don't raise livestock. Our animal husbandry owners want the best environment for their livestock.
Speaker 1:Right and I think the two of you are the perfect individuals to sit down and talk about this because putting the two of you together, there's many years of experience here in the room. Lyle you have over forty six years of experience in the livestock industry and then Mike you've got twenty six years of experience. So we've got a great amount of knowledge here. So before we really dive into our topic, do you wanna just briefly share what do you do here at Lang Ag Systems? I know today we're talking about fall and winter ventilation for swine barns, but I know there's a lot more that you have going on here.
Speaker 2:Right now, we're in the midst of one of the big things that we do here is silage bagging. And so our group of folks that focus on that part of the business are busy shipping bags, getting things ready, and then also working with their customers on making sure that we're ready for the grain aspect that is just around the corner. I'm sure some of you are in the combine or the auger cart or the semi listening. And so we do have not only the the bags for those things, but also the loaders and unloaders, for that as well. We're heavy in our construction season, and and have completed some of our first projects of the year.
Speaker 2:We're actually in the process of beginning some of our larger projects that will take place starting around Labor Day this year, and then we'll be carrying on through Labor Day of next year. So that'll be a huge commitment on our part and appreciate the customers trust in our ability and also our knowledge to be able to deliver a package that way. And then we have tremendous amount of remodels that are continuously going on. And so whether it's new, needing refurbished, or something along the side on even the silage and and and grain side, we can supply across any of those platforms for any of our customers.
Speaker 1:So earlier this summer, I thought we had a really good conversation about summer ventilation. But now we're recording this in August, and we'll get this out by the first part of September. So it's definitely time to start thinking about ventilation and preparation for fall and going into winter for our swine facilities. To start our discussion, is there some key terms that folks need to know and understand as we talk about ventilation?
Speaker 3:Yeah. One of them would be CFM, and that's cubic foot of air per minute. And everybody, or most people, are aware of that. We're always thinking about that differently now this time of the year to get more of a minimum amount of air, but we want to be able to control the environment, which means moisture and also the environment for the animal and just keeping it very comfortable inside there for both animals and employees.
Speaker 2:Yeah. As we talk about some of the moisture pieces, one of the key things is humidity and trying to maintain humidity between 5070%. And we'll talk through on some of that today. The other thing is the gases that Lyle talked about. And if you achieve your minimum ventilation for for your humidity, you will control your gases.
Speaker 2:There are some key things that as a as a producer you can do. We can install a humidistat that's tied to the controller, that will actually help operate the system based on humidity. For a cheaper option, you can just hang a a temp humidity reader that's about $10 for one. Good part is when it fails you just get a different one. And then the old ribbon test that I know Lyle and I've both done where you wipe the dust off the gate and if you can make a ribbon it's too wet.
Speaker 2:And so different ways and different ways to be able to measure that but always important that we have control of that environment. The other thing when we talk about minimum ventilation that's key is is we have to keep in mind what the pig's needs are. And different people have different views on how that's approached. When we talk about minimum ventilation on on weaned pigs or a 13 pound pig, we're looking to one to two CFM per pig, feeder pigs three to four, and then really starting to adjust based upon the environmental conditions from there. So when we talk about kind of the starting point, that's that's all it is based on the environment.
Speaker 2:And I think we shared in the last podcast some of those stories about when things aren't operating in the quite the way they need to, you have to make adjustments to be able to achieve what your needs are.
Speaker 3:One of the other items that's kind of changed in the industry in the last seven years is our weaning age has increased from about eighteen, nineteen days now to about twenty two, twenty three days. So instead of getting a minimal pig size weaned of 10 to twelve, thirteen pounds, we're getting closer to a 15 pound animal. And what that really means is you are able to move a little bit more air when you've got that larger pig. It might not sound very much, but we base everything on the total number of pounds in the room. And when you've got 1,200 head in a room or more and they weigh two more pounds, you're probably going to move an extra CFM or so for that.
Speaker 3:And so you've got weaners and you've got a feeder pig that might go in there at 40 pounds, 50 pounds and that's going to vary. And most people all realize, and that's when the question comes up, is gosh, the pigs are forty, forty five pounds and I've got a moisture problem inside this barn. What do I do? And you have to, like Mike elated to, you've got to move a little bit more air because air is what hauls the moisture out. Now, when you add, move more air, that means your heater is going to have to turn a little bit more.
Speaker 3:And people need to remember, one of the key little things like CFM is every time air is 20 degrees warmer, it can hold twice as much water approximately. And that's a lot. Now we're not going to warm it up 20 degrees warmer naturally, but we might warm it up or let it run more because we're running our fan, our heater longer so that our fan's going to be running a little bit faster and hauling the moisture out of that building.
Speaker 2:And ultimately, the more air exchange, and and that's what we're talking about here, that you can have, the quicker that you can get that humidity and get the drier air back in into the facility to provide the right environment for the animal.
Speaker 3:And that goes away. That problem, is is solved once the pigs reach about 90 pounds, and you don't need any very little heat inside of a building after 90 pounds inside of a building. So just want to have the best environment possible.
Speaker 2:And to kind of go off of that, you know, one of the things that you'll hear people talk about is barn heat loss. And ultimately, heat loss is the combination of some of the things that Lyle and I've been talking about where we're talking about a ventilation loss, where I'm losing heat because I'm running fans faster. The barns are not a 100% insulated tight just like our houses. We need them to breathe. We need to be able to allow them to move, so you'll lose some heat that way.
Speaker 2:And then also, like Lyle said, the heat that the pigs produce, as the pigs get bigger, they produce more. And so that calculation all together is what you're trying to balance as you work through transition weather in the fall and as you get work through the cold winter months. And one of the other things that we can do to help offset that is something called zone heating. And so as we start talking about brooders and brooder systems, our ability to be able to manage micro zones within the barn to utilize propane at a different rate than if we're trying to heat an entire airspace. It really goes a lot to what we talk about when we talk about airflow and airspeed and air exchanges except you're trying to do minimal to try to keep the temperature right while managing the rest of that environment.
Speaker 3:Yeah. You're not wasting LP gas. We're spot heating that, so to speak, right on the floor where you want it, keeping that radiant heat nice, warm, coming down eighty, eighty five, 90 degrees right at that pig level. And then most people will start the pigs underneath that brooder with some type of a solid material so they can lay on to eliminate any drafts that would go down through there as well.
Speaker 2:And it helps retain the heat that much better. Yes. So most of those comfort mats you see are black for a reason and they aren't white.
Speaker 3:Yep. And you can then, you can even if you feel the need, if they don't go to the feeder, can actually creep them a little bit on that pad as well. So there's multiple. But with that sanitation is a problem when you do get done. Some people elect to go with a plastic type pad.
Speaker 3:Some people go with a four by eight sheet of plywood, as cheap as they can get. They just burn that when they're done instead of trying to wash it down.
Speaker 1:All right. Well thanks for going through some of those key terms that are foundation here to understand kind of the rest of what we're going to talk about. So next, let's talk about being ready with our ventilation come winter. What are the foundational things that producers should be evaluating for?
Speaker 3:Well, the first thing is you've got to make sure your fans are washed. Now we're going to really be utilizing our minimum speed fans, so they're really critical that they're cleaned completely. Naturally, most people have a lot of pit fans out there, and the transitions have built up with about everything you can imagine pulling air out of a pit. And kicking them and letting them go clunkity clunk doesn't quite solve the situation. You need to get a pressure washer in there and clean them out well and that's the whole transition.
Speaker 3:Even the opening going into the pit needs to be completely clean so that that's not restrictive even in that part of it. And then testing all the fans, making sure they all operate, making sure your variable speeds are running and they're performing correctly and you don't have a motor that might be failing so now you've only got one instead of two. And I should make one point and before Mike Brum retired, Doc Brum and I would talk about when you brought in some, a group of pigs and it was extremely cold outside. I know Mike made a comment, he says, Well, if that really comes to that point, you can always unplug, if you've got two pit fans on your minimum, you can always unplug one of them. And I thought, interesting, Mike.
Speaker 3:I've been saying this for since about the mid seventies to do the same thing. So it was interesting and that really can help get your fans down running slower at that time if it's 20 below that.
Speaker 2:You know, as Lyle talked about making sure the fans are clean, one of the things that we also got to keep in mind is we probably have full pits for those that have pit fans in place. So having making sure that you have a backup plan, if you do get to full pit scenario so that you can provide the minimum ventilation that you need for the pigs. And that can be achieved on a curtain barn through cracking curtains on the side if you don't can't get through the vent the pits Or for those that do have wall fans being able to and they're variable switching around some things in the controller so that your wall fan variable becomes your first stage and recognizing that your pit fans aren't aren't functional anymore. You know, so those are things heading into the fall. As we think about the winter pieces, it's thinking proactively on where are the winter shutters?
Speaker 2:Where are the shutters in general and what are the conditions? Because like Lyle said we're going to be using less fan power than what we did all summer long. And so usually the good rule of thumb is on your three largest fans as you get into the wintertime you want to make sure those are covered and they can be through a winter cover or just like when we were talking about humidity there are cheaper options. Simply putting plastic underneath those shutters will help allow those. Now one of the things to remember is always shut off that fan once you put the plastic there because that's a good way to watch plastic get sucked through a fan.
Speaker 2:And then Lyle had also talked about if there are some fans that aren't working, make sure that we're matching up the motors on those fans that are paired together whether they're variable or fixed to make for sure that we are operating off the same motor curve. One of the most common things that we see is well, I need a certain size motor and customers grab whatever. Well, the motors are not designed to operate the same if they're different brands.
Speaker 3:It's called a motor curve.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:And you can take three different brands of fan motors for a, let's just say a 24 inches fan, and there might be three different motor curves for them. And what happens with that is when two motors are operating on stage one or stage two, which is normally variable, they'll run erratic. One might run much faster and one's running way slower or vice versa. And it's extremely noticeable. So when you do go and replace fan motors, by all means, make sure that you're matching the two with the same brand, not just another generic motor.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:And the other thing, one more thing on this is the pit covers. Make sure that your pit covers are tight over top of the concrete and then make sure that you transition. And this is just going to happen over time, that the fans start pulling away with the weight or maybe the snow from the year before or whatever and there can be an inch or two gap on that. That's not good because now you're just short circuiting your air. And you think you're moving x many CFM, but it's just going around in a circle and it's not benefiting anybody but burning up electricity.
Speaker 2:It's not doing the air exchange as the barn is designed.
Speaker 3:And
Speaker 2:That's that's usually one of those areas where when we start seeing some well, my humidity is high and I'm well, the pick cover's off. Yep. And as we talk about this time of year and pumping, that's usually the first thing that that I would suggest is did the pumper put the cover back on? And once we find that, now we can go back to troubleshooting traditionally.
Speaker 3:The other thing is make sure when someone has come in and washed their barn and they've set the shutters on the floor and maybe they were washing the interior of the fans, that they put them back into the fan again. We see many times when people have to order new shutters because they didn't get noticed that they were not put back into the fan itself and then the pigs destroy them. Now they're sitting without a shutter and it's cold outside. So now you've got problems. But a lot of people today do use a winter shutter that you pull the shutter out.
Speaker 3:Usually we hang them from the ceiling, lay them horizontally. We got brackets for that. And then you take the shutters down, the winter shutter covers, and you put them into the fan. It's a very simple replacement to do that.
Speaker 2:So we talked a lot about fans. Now let's talk about how the air gets into the barn to be able to do the fan. So one of the things we talked in the last podcast was making sure soffits are clean and ready to go. Well we still need to make sure they're clean and ready to go because they've been sitting over summer. Oftentimes after harvest we know we're always going get that one wind that blows all the stocks from the next county over into everywhere where it's not supposed to be.
Speaker 2:So making sure that that's all cleaned out. And then also if you have winter doors because we are going to be using less air over the wintertime. So we can close off some of the soffits, and typically that's on the north or west side so that we don't end up with a bunch of snow in the attic. So make sure that those are all sealed up, hinges are good, and that the closure pieces are still there.
Speaker 3:Know, Mike, you made an interesting thing about where the air is going to come into the building. And you see a lot of times on someone's existing building by their walk door going in because the door is kind of worn a little bit and a little bit fatigued and there's a crack there, you can fall over where that air comes in the crack and then it goes up and hits the ceiling material. It's condensated and it's rusting there. Now all of a sudden when it rusts too much, now you've got air coming in through that location rather than a more desirable area, which we will get to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that most more desirable area once you get it into the attic is to come through the inlets. And just like we talked about heading into summertime we also need to go through and recalibrate everything because things have moved over the course of summer. Wires have stretched. Cable has stretched. We need to make sure that it's all back to snuff.
Speaker 2:So able to close those inlets and making sure that they're all closed tight is very important and then making sure that we've reset some of those inlets to stages. As we talked about minimum ventilation we're slowing fans down We wanna keep the same airspeed coming out of those inlets. And, Lyle, what's that airspeed that we're after?
Speaker 3:800 to 850 feet per minute.
Speaker 2:And so in order to do that, we have to make sure that we bring those down to achieve that. And so just like we did heading into summer and making sure that's closed now we have to make sure that they're calibrated a little bit more fine tuned so that I get that air screaming across the ceiling so that 15 to 20 feet away, it's hitting me in the head at six feet. For those that are shorter than six feet, get a ladder one foot, and they'll still be 15 to 20 feet away.
Speaker 3:Exactly. So then the, talked about the soffits, making sure that they're clean. The doors, if you need to repair any doors or anything like that, you got all the chaff out. And keep in mind, fall season goes quite late in the fall sometimes, so you're collecting chaff into potentially the very end of October in a lot of cases. So do that.
Speaker 3:And when you calibrate an inlet, make sure that when it's supposed to be closed, you've to zero it out. Make sure, especially on an automated inlet, or actuated inlet I should call it, that it closes completely down and that's your base point. And then for each stage, make sure that it's adjusting in every stage, you've got that eight fifty feet per minute. Use that little $60 meter to do it or use the case where you get back up 15 feet and make sure it's hitting you in the forehead. Simple things that can save, not only make the ventilation work better, but the pigs will be healthier because of it.
Speaker 2:So now we've talked about the air coming in, we've talked about it coming out, how we want it. One of the pieces that we failed to mention so far, Lyle, was talking about curtains.
Speaker 3:Oh, yes.
Speaker 2:Whether it's a tunnel barn or a curtain barn, make sure we have a proper overlap of three to four inches so we get a good seal. And then also, just like when we're talking many of the people listening right now have been working on their equipment most of the fall trying to get it ready for for fall, greasing things Yep. Making sure that it's all cleaned out and ready to roll. We have to do the same thing with our curtain machines and making sure that we take the cover off. There's grease zerks there that we need to be able to grease.
Speaker 2:And then also the emergency backup system. So Mhmm. Whether it's a a power drop or an old curtain drop, which was called a curtain minder, make sure that's been tested, oiled, greased, and it can move freely. Same with the winches, making sure that you can work them free. Because in when we're out in the field and in combining, we wanna make for sure that those emergency systems are functional so that we don't have a disaster when we finally are able to get to that site.
Speaker 3:You mentioned, Mike, about the grease on a curtain machine and that goes for the ceiling inlet machine as there's a machine for that. Typically there's five to seven grease zerks on all manufacturer curtain machines. We've had many people that say, Oh, there's grease zerks on them? Yes, there is and they should be greased. Even our cast pulleys that we use that go around where you string your cable through and rod for the inlet, there's grease zirks on them as well.
Speaker 3:That needs to be greased. So even though it's a livestock operation, we still need a little bit of grease out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then some of the things that we've worked with our customers on over time is, you know, a lot of single in this area there was a lot of curtain sided barns that were built just based on the generation of when things were were really developed in this area. And one of the questions is how do I try to conserve my heat the most? And so there are a couple things. Some of these barns were originally built within heavy insulated curtains that were anywhere from five to nine layers deep but it's really heavy on the system.
Speaker 2:We've since found many different ways of doing that, whether that be simply hanging plastic, which will double our value of the of the the sidewalls, to utilizing a bubble foil product that helps reflect heat back in. So a little different concept than our value, but, but still very effective. Or one of the other things is a three ply curtain with bubble in between.
Speaker 3:So that's something that we've used a lot and there is some underlying advantages with that. There's a bubble in between, curtain on both sides, but one of the things that most people comment about it the most is not because it's warmer, but because it lets all the natural light come into the building, the entire length, and they like that. But make sure don't try to think sometimes you can get one more year out of a curtain because you surely don't want it to fail in the middle of the winter. And that's when things fail.
Speaker 2:Because typically that's February when that thing breaks And and that thing breaks apart on
Speaker 3:that's no fun. And there's usually a snowbank to work around to build.
Speaker 2:That's right. So we we've talked about all the ventilation pieces. Now the the one of the most critical pieces, especially as we're talking about young pigs coming into the environment, is the heating portion. Some general rules of thumb make sure LP tanks are always filled to a minimum of 60% because you got to have the LP able to boil and that's one of the first things that that often short come those things. Make sure that the gas regulators are free of debris they have little vents on them and just like the soffit conversation that we had earlier you have to make sure those and then make sure that you do a visual inspection of of your gas lines especially as you're getting into that eight nine ten year mark always good to make sure that you're looking at those especially where the gas lines go through the walls.
Speaker 2:We've seen a lot of people transition to using stainless steel gas line through those wall transitions to minimize the condensation that happens and then the further deterioration of that wall from that condensation.
Speaker 3:That's really a big issue. That's something that's done a lot today, is the stainless steel going through the wall. The other thing is when you've got a forced air furnace in the building, just take a small little air compressor. We all know it's been sitting empty the whole summer. The dust is collected in the fan.
Speaker 3:Blow the fan out. Take and go to the back by the pilot light and the burner back there and blow all that out, blow your orifice out. Really air solves a lot of issues with something like that. Make sure they're running right away and you'll be way happier and you won't run into something on a Sunday morning, hopefully when you're leaving to go somewhere. Then there's also the pilot bark igniters and glow plugs.
Speaker 3:Make sure if that's the kind of heater you have in there that they're all working properly and, a rodent hasn't chewed off a wire or whatever inside there, which, can also there. Maybe you wanna kinda talk, Mike, a little bit about validating your backup override, thermostats.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So something's very simple that we have and we talked about the emergency backups. One of the simplest things that most hog barns have out there is thermostats that are set for heater and a fan or curtain drop or have seen some that are they have them for everything. They're they're a great tool if they're set correctly. If they're set incorrectly you can burn a lot of LP whether it's the fan that's kicking on too soon or the heater that's running too too close to temp.
Speaker 2:Usually, on some of the oldest ones, you can listen and if you put your ear next to it, and you can hear a click and that will tell you where the temperature is going. If you start having thermostats that are off greater than 10 degrees replace the thermostat. It's a relatively cheap thing to say, well, it's off five degrees. Okay. That's that's normal.
Speaker 2:I think some of them that's just how they were designed. Depending on the thermostat, some can be recalibrated a little bit with just it has a little dial piece. Others are electronic and digital. Those are very effective too. Either way, making sure that you have it set correctly.
Speaker 2:So, typically, you wanna be eight to 10 degrees plus or minus depending on what the override thermostat is. The other thing I wanted to throw out there that Lyle talked about with the air compressor, one of the other things I've seen guys figure out that's real handy is those cordless leaf blowers. Leaf blowers. You can do a lot of cleaning with a little leaf blower and a hog barn.
Speaker 3:That's
Speaker 2:right. And while you're also in checking the wire harnesses and all those different things, you'll also see there's a gas valve inside the heater.
Speaker 3:But that's only on the Guardian model of the LB White. So that's between the regulator and the burner. Now a lot of people think that that little valve right there is just a shut off valve for the heater. No. It's an orifice built into there from your maximum of your two fifty down to 150,000 BTUs.
Speaker 3:So when you're running a barn, you really want to run your barn at 150,000 BTUs until it can't keep up no longer because the longer runs, the more even the temperature is going to be in the building. And then at that point, you just turn it on to turbo as you might want to say, and, now you've got plenty of heat inside the building.
Speaker 2:And where that even comes even more critical is when you're zone heating the barn. Yep. Because really as I start cooling the barn down and I get to the point where I need more heat to suffice the barn heat loss that is going on, I want to make sure that my brooders are the next thing in line in wean to finish barns.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 2:Right? And once I get to the point where the brooders aren't supplying what I need for that barn temperature, now I want a slow burn on my forced air furnaces to keep a nicest distribution. Otherwise, you get blasts on and off and you can get adverse reactions and in fans speeding up unnecessarily and creating a cycle. As we talk about zone heating and brooders a lot of the same things that we've talked about elsewhere Wind to make sure filters are clean that they're blown out that they've been cleaned out. And then we get into some trickier things on the brooders that usually trip people up.
Speaker 2:The thermocoupler which is two different methods that helps transition and allows that brooder to continue to start firing if it is touching the brooder itself it short circuits and then it will not stay lit. And then I've seen lots of people start tearing into brooders changing out orifices and all kinds of different things when in all reality they just need to bend that little thermocoupler out just a little bit. The other thing is there most of the zone heating controls at this point over the last fifteen to twenty years have become their own brooder and regulator system and so making sure those regulators work that those valves are functional that the gauges work so that that system is functional. As you're making adjustments, you know what you're making adjustments to and how it's impacting the system.
Speaker 3:And don't be scared to look at your control once in a while at your heater run time. Typically in a barn, you've got, if the barn is 200 foot long, there's a temp probe in the middle and a temp probe on both ends, or in the middle of the halfway down. We like to run, I like to take the average temperature of the middle and one end on one temp probe together, and then I take the middle and the temp probe in the other end. And it's amazing how much, if you have it set up that way, which I would call correctly, how much less fuel you use. And don't be bashful to look at your run time because that can tell you if there's an inlet that's too far open, if a fan cover is leaking too much on one end or whatever.
Speaker 3:So do use that technology that is on most controls.
Speaker 1:So you've talked about fans, soffits, the inlet system, curtains, heating. You talked a little bit about testing and calibrating. How often should producers be testing and calibrating their equipment? Is it just here at the change of the season or is it alert times as well?
Speaker 3:If we could get people just to make a practice to test it now, probably before you hit the field, and then also in the spring. That would be huge because it's a big job that just plain needs to be done. And there might be some questions involved in it that they can call someone and find out to make sure that it's all running properly.
Speaker 2:Good rules of thumb that I've heard people say that they've gotten into the change of season.
Speaker 3:Or
Speaker 2:if they're getting the equipment ready to go to the field, they need to get the barn ready for them to go to the field.
Speaker 3:That's right. That's right. Yeah. We don't wanna have an ironitis problem in the hog barn.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:As we all can understand what that means.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So that's a good rule of thumb as they're prepping to get out to do their fieldwork. Also should look at items in the barn, making sure things are in good working order. What are some common things that can cause issues?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we've hit on some of these as we've talked through, so we'll kind of work through these fairly quickly, think, Sarah. You know, heater fan overlap. That was one of the things that we had talked about without calling it out specifically. It's when we don't have the fan shutting off soon enough
Speaker 3:A degree and a half, two degrees because once the heater shuts off, like Mike is saying, the temperature keeps rising in the room. Well, if it keeps rising and then it hits the point where that variable speed starts running faster, you're just burning gas up.
Speaker 2:And then it's a vicious cycle of fan slows down, kicks the heater on, and back and forth. So making sure you're that degree and a half to two degrees and if you're zone heating then you actually want that heater to kick on probably 10 degrees over or under where your fan would start ramping up to allow that barn to do what's natural up and down through the heating. Over ventilating on young pigs is usually a common reason why you have that heater fan overlap.
Speaker 3:The other thing that we need to do is we need to adjust the bandwidth of each fan stage, which we didn't talk about.
Speaker 2:No, we didn't.
Speaker 3:And that's a big issue because in the summertime, we're keeping them bandwidths close together so they would just keep clicking on so the fans wouldn't let the heat build up in the room. Now we want to widen them out to one and a half to two degrees per bandwidth instead. So that's very important that that change gets made.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Modern controllers are do something and then let it think. The last thing you wanna do is just keep clicking things on to try to chase a problem that's not there yet. The controllers work the best when you allow them to do something and then a pause to think. And so whether that's speeding fans up, turning heaters on, but allowing some sort of buffer zone in there so that you don't adversely affect that environment.
Speaker 3:And we can run, I know the controls that we use, you can actually run the controls so that you can put it in the test mode so you can adjust the different temperatures and make sure that everything is all running properly. Do that when it's warm outside. Again, that's something that you want to do prior to heading to the field or fall harvest.
Speaker 2:And then some of the other things that we've already talked about, making sure inlets are calibrated so that I have the right airspeed coming out. Dirty heater housings do us no good. Because if I want to run some heat, I want it to be hot. Yep. And dirty heaters do not work the way and produce the BTUs that they need.
Speaker 2:As we talk about some of the different heater styles, Lyle talked about a pilot heater. Those are are very straightforward. Yep. If they're blown out and as long as the motors didn't seize up because they didn't run all summer long, they're very consistent. Other producers have leveraged hot electronic or hot surface.
Speaker 2:There there there's usually three things that you can look at. It's either the igniter, it's the high limit switch, or it's the sail switch. That's that's pretty much it. If it's more than that, that means the rodent price starts chewing through wires, and then you got a bigger problem.
Speaker 3:And if anybody has any questions, the best thing to do is just to call and find out. I mean, there's no there's no dumb question, literally, and just call and find out and and ask because it's it's gonna save you a lot of time.
Speaker 2:Yep. And then the brooder piece, which we talked about on zone heating, we already talked about thermocoupler. There is on the LB White brooders. There's two little orifices in there. They need to make sure that they aren't plugged.
Speaker 2:Brooders get dirty too. Gotta blow those out, and that's where that air compressor or that little leaf blower works real well. Just make sure you're always blowing the way the gas is going to flow and not vice versa. That's a good way to get things plugged up. And then making sure that your connections and valves are all functional and that something didn't break there.
Speaker 2:So those are those are kind of the short circuits that we always see when we talk about fall and winter ventilation that would end up be causing issues not only for the producer, but more importantly for the livestock in there.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Yep. How about could we add curtains to that list? I mean, sometimes you see, like, holes from where or mice got or whatever. How does that impact?
Speaker 1:And is that something that can cause issues? Or maybe that's another podcast.
Speaker 3:That's real interesting. But here's the simplest way that we tell customers. We know the curtains usually drop down because we want the air to come up as high and come into the building. But when you bait for rodents, don't bait where the curtain has dropped down at the bottom in there. Bait it down on the ground away from the curtain because you're attracting the rodents to the bait, not trying to attract them to the curtain.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And one of the things that I'm not sure that we talked about in the summer podcast, you know, we've gotten a fair amount of rain. It's slowed quite a bit. But the last couple of Fridays have been adventurous around here. Making sure that you're running your curtains up to get all that moisture out, and that rainwater out will help prolong the life of those curtains.
Speaker 2:Cause it's not just the rodents that will create those holes. Sometimes that setting water will help deteriorate that. But you're 100% right. If I don't if I have holes in the curtain, I'm not pulling there through the soffit and the inlets the way the system is designed. And so there's multiple ways to doing it.
Speaker 2:You can patch the curtains, but you need to do it when it's warm. When it's cold, you're done.
Speaker 3:And there's a patch for it. It's very inexpensive, so it's very simple. We have different people that'll just pick up a row and we'll explain to them how to do it properly. And, they can then get some more time out of their curtain by doing that.
Speaker 2:And if it's gotten too too bad, you can always replace the curtain. And in the case of emergency, some of those previous things I talked about with the bubble foil utilizing plastic can get you by. If if for some reason a power washer decided to make it into a screen door, you can buy some time to get by and get that replaced. And a lot of guys will hang that plastic while they replace that curtain to help those animals.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Good. So you went over how we can kind of troubleshoot our curtain. How about for some of the other items that you talked about? How would a person go about, like, testing for some of those issues?
Speaker 3:Well, I think the because a producer doesn't do this very frequently, it's sometimes best to just, let's say, call us up and we can just walk them through what they need to be doing the testing right down the line to get it done correctly. And we'll be more than happy to help somebody because if you don't do something real often, sometimes you have a tendency of not taking you more time and we're trying to save the time. That's our job.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And, you know, whether it be leveraging the controller and helping raise the set point or lower the set point to activate different pieces of equipment, I think, is good. We did talk about calibration of the inlets, calibration of the curtain. Once you you do it a few different times, you you get a feel for it. But like Lyle said, if you haven't done it, you usually need some guidance.
Speaker 2:No different than when you get a new piece of machinery, you usually have to ask, okay. What all do I need to do to service this? And you're using some of the experiences you had from the past.
Speaker 3:And the biggest thing we can do is, to a number of people, producers, is to get involved and touch and do these things. Don't just leave it set the way it was originally in the first place. Get involved. Maybe they weren't even showed very much when someone originally installed it for them. So this is, like I say, it's just a good idea to be asking questions if you got them.
Speaker 1:Good. So based on your experience, what results have producers seen after making some corrections?
Speaker 3:Well fuel cost is one main thing. Environment is something. Basically if you take the environment inside of a building and you didn't adjust all your inlets so they're all open the same amount, so some might be open a quarter of an inch and there might be one that's open an inch, that air is going to be dropping in that spot creating a problem right there. That might be the first place you catch a cough inside the building. And then it's just going to move throughout the building.
Speaker 3:And keep in mind that every time air is 20 degrees colder, it's twice as heavy. So it will drop twice as fast down towards the animals. It's the same thing with holding twice as much moisture when it's 20 degrees warmer. 20 degrees colder creates a draft. So very important to be looking at that.
Speaker 3:These are simple little things that really can make a building run much more economically and a much better environment inside.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like cost of LP but then also sick pigs Yes, can
Speaker 3:them two things. And with sick pigs, great work. And we want to have a healthy pig.
Speaker 1:Well, we're coming to the end of our discussion here. So is there any closing remarks you want to make to wrap up?
Speaker 3:Well, thank you Sarah for the time you're spending with us and allowing us to get this information out to people and to be here and hopefully we'll shake a tree here and there where someone might say, ah, this is some good information. I can go out and then they can realize the return on their time of seeing what they did. So very appreciative of this time that you're spending here.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I know Lyle had mentioned it a couple times. If you aren't for sure, to the listeners listening, you can call us. We're more than happy to help talk through things. You know, we talked about all the different things we do from a sales and things like that, but one of the other things we pride ourselves a lot on here at Lang Ag Systems is we're here to help.
Speaker 2:And so if any of the listeners have any questions feel free to call us here at Lang Ag Systems and between Lyle, myself, Kyle, Jeff, Mark, everyone here is more than willing to help talk you through anything and see if we can help troubleshoot it from phone. And if we can't, we also have people that will come out and be able to help you face to face.
Speaker 1:I was just gonna say that. I mean, between just the two of you, you've got a lot of experience. You've been in a lot of barns. You've helped construct a lot of barns. So yeah, you're very familiar with what's going on.
Speaker 3:We can double. I've had this business for forty six years with five family members working as well as a lot of other professional ag industry people here. But then I did this for ten years prior to this. And we've got numerous people that have been here for twenty and thirty years doing this type of work. So we do value a lot of knowledge that we have.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to thank both of you for taking the time to sit down with me to have this discussion so that we can record this podcast and help folks prepare for fall and then also get into winter ventilation in their swine barns.
Speaker 3:So safe harvest through everybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. Make sure that everybody's getting plenty of rest. And I know that falls on deaf ears this time of year. Make sure that you get home how you left home.
Speaker 1:And we want to thank those tuning in and listening to the podcast, which is the University of Minnesota Swine and You. Again, this has been Sarah Sheikh Belke, your Extension Swine Educator, along with Lyle Lang and Mike Walker from Lang Ag Systems. To further connect with the University of Minnesota Swine Extension, please visit our swine specific pages on our website at www.extension.umn.edu/swine. And on those pages, you'll find connections to our blog and Facebook page. To learn about research being done by our swine faculty in veterinary medicine visit their Swine in Minnesota blog at www.umnswinenews.com