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1,000 Pigs Died in Iowa Hog Farm

By , Farms.com

Officials say that about 1,000 pigs died in a barn fire that broke out on a hog operation located in eastern Iowa.  The fire was reported on Friday around 1pm on a hog farm located 10 miles west of Columbus Junction. The hog facility included eight connected buildings, spanning 20 acres.

By the time firefighters arrived on scene, two of the farrowing barns were fully engulfed in flames. It took 45 firefighters from surrounding communities to put out the fire. The blaze was difficult to extinguish due to the location of the facility. The swine barn was located on a hilly property, which made it difficult to truck water in freezing temperatures.

Authorities say that 500 to 600 pigs that were killed were sows and the rest were piglets. No humans were injured.

The fire is still under investigation.


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Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.