We caught up with Tom, a calf pen system owner, at the Central Plains Dairy Show!
Josh from Hinkley Dairy tells us what he likes about the Dura Bilt Calf Stalls. Easy to clean, calves are comfortable, and many more!
I have been working with ADA Enterprises since the mid to late 80s. At Compart Family Farms we use Dura Trac creep sides with cast iron centers for the sow and haven’t seen any wear on the flooring. Therefore, we replaced solid rubber mats with the Dura Trac Solid Plate option in our creep areas. This works really well. No bacteria gets underneath and it lasts much longer than the rubber mats. In addition, there haven’t been any issues from a clean-up standpoint. Galvanized triangular rod flooring may clean easier, however, sows are injuring themselves and the baby pigs are cold. We have built a lot of farms and we keep putting in Dura Trac flooring. You don’t keep buying what you don’t like.
John Kimberly of Kimberly Farms (Facebook) purchased Calf pens from ADA Enterprises in 2016 and hasn’t lost a calf since. He admitted he was initially hesitant to buy Dura Bilt stalls because he was a believer in straw bedding, but the results – no lost calves in 3 years – proved he made the right choice. John is adding even more Calf Stalls.
John from Kimberly Farm
From a loyal Dura Trac Flooring customer:
Kelly Farms has 1500 sows and has had Dura Trac flooring from ADA Enterprises under the creep areas in our farrowing crates for 21 years. We found your flooring to be simple and quick to install and have been more than satisfied with its strength and durability. There has never been a need to worry about flooring collapse or failure. We have found your flooring to be easy to clean, easy to inspect for cleanliness and gentle on the piglets. Healthy growth in our piglets has been aided by never having a problem with traction while nursing, nor loss of body temp to the plastic coated steel flooring that can occur in other types of flooring.
We have two types of flooring for our weaned pigs up to 70 pounds. We have Dura Trac flooring from ADA Enterprises and we have a clip together type of molded plastic flooring. The weaned pigs on the Dura Trac flooring consistently do better than the others. The difference, we believe, is the ability to more thoroughly clean the flooring from ADA. This flooring is also 21 years old.
From a Dura Bilt Calf Stall customer:
With our new calf rearing system it is easy to achieve our target weaning weights on a monthly basis with less mortality.
800 female calves monthly weaned at 78 days of age at an average weight of 104 kg.