Giving straw as a diversion to piglets and meat pigs is and remains a challenge. One time the straw falls out too hard, the other time the straw falls out too little or the wheel even gets stuck.
For straw pellets we have our ZVAC37 doser which can dose a lot of large and small sizes of straw pellets. For long straw we can make a straw grape from round staff and strip. But for chopped straw, we had no solution.
The question
Two Dutch pig farmers were in consultation with a large customer to give chopped straw to their piglets and meat pigs. They saw problems that there was always too much straw or too little straw and that we had an idea to regulate it better. The requirements were that the strawbox can be set in various positions, that the pig strawbox is durable and that filling the strawboxes can be easy if automated. We could do that.
The idea
We wanted to make a strobe that comes close to our existing feeding systems, because it proved itself well. Using our standard recycled PE plates in combination with stainless steel and our PT0 adjustment was a requirement for ourselves. We've made a prototype of two stainless steel grids that we can slide across each other. Together with the adjustment we can make the holes in these stainless steel grids larger or smaller, depending on the length of the chopped straw. In our factory the prototype looked very good and neat, we were satisfied. Let's test it out.
The strawbox in practice
We had the pigs test straw boxes at the two pig farmers and they were very satisfied. There is not too little chopped straw but certainly not too much. The piglets and meat pigs play with the strawbox and pull the straw out of it themselves, without the strawberry being stuck. They are really playing with it and have a visible pleasure in it. Moreover, straw is not spilled unnecessarily, but it certainly comes out enough. In addition, the straw grape can be set as desired if the length of the straw changes or if one wants to change the straw gift. Because the top of the strawbox is this large, the strawberry can also be filled automatically with tube systems when it comes to larger numbers and one wants to save labour. They were very satisfied with the operation. The sizes have become 600mm high x 400mm wide x 270mm deep (top).
The sequel
Now that we know that the straw bowl for piglets and meat pigs works very well in practice, we would also like to make it known to the public. We're out of strawbox Eurotier registered as innovation, which also indicates the strobe on the innovation route and can be seen on our stand 16G05. We have already distributed 50 copies of the straw bowl to pig farmers who want to test it and we have delivered it to our partners. We also found a name and it has become the FunFeeder. An international name that also indicates exactly what it is meant for: fun for the pigs.
