Safety first!
Safety comes first at a spanking new Kemptville cattle barn specializing in the delicate task of ‘romancing’ ornery bulls
BY TOM VAN DUSEN, Ottawa Sun, 2007.09.09
SAFETY OF THE HANDLERS
That’s got to be one of the main considerations when you’re building a new barn and pens to house cantankerous bulls at a semen extraction operation.
And safety was indeed worked into Eastern Breeders Inc.’s $800,000 “first of its kind” replacement sire barn officially opened last week.
The steel sides of the new pens are made of a heavier gauge than in most of the 14 older barns on the EBI co-operative site just south of here. The bars are horizontal, allowing their use as ladders for quick exits by handlers when “bad attitude” arises among the bulls.
Despite the hazardous nature of the extraction end of the artificial insemination business, accidents are rare, said co-op spokesman Paul Stewart who can recall two over the past 20 years and several close calls.
TESTY CUSTOMERS
“It’s the nature of the beast,” Stewart said. “You’re working with 2,000 lbs of testosterone that likes to compete and be on top of the heap.”
Occupying construction of the new 16,000 sq.-ft. facility began April 2 to replace a barn, less than half its size, built in 1974.
In addition to safety, creature comfort to maximize productivity was a top requirement when EBI decided to build the barn this year as a 60th anniversary present to itself.
Increased comfort has been realized primarily through oversized 14×24-ft. pens to replace the former facility’s 10×12 pens. Although considerably larger, the new barn has 32 pens, two fewer pens than the one it replaced.
The wood framed, steel-sided new barn also features natural ventilation, with seven fans to help combat the heat of high summer
“It’s a simple but revolutionary design that will be the model for years to come internationally for sire care barns,” said Ron Stewart, project manager and manager of EBI farm operations.
Going into making the barn were 48,000 lbs of steel, 400 yards of concrete, 3,408 tonnes of aggregate, and 436 tonnes of asphalt.
While the barn is a big one, contractor Ron Swank said it’s not as big as some of the dairy barns he has erected this summer which — fully loaded — come in at about $1 million each.
The project was on time and on budget, said EBI General Manager Ann Louise Carson, adding that “this most recent commitment to excellence” exemplifies the co-op’s 60th anniversary motto: “Making History”.
GETTING BUSY
Picking up the theme, EBI president Hugh Graham said EBI has a history of breaking new ground in the industry.
Not yet filled with sires, the new barn will soon go on line to help EBI bolster its current average production of 14,000 doses of semen per day. Each dose is contained in a flash-frozen plastic straw.
The current record number of doses in a day, 24,052,was set on May 22. A bull by the name of Strouder Morty set the one-day individual record on Aug. 26 by delivering 4,146 doses.
The total doses of semen produced since the AI centre opened 60 years ago is a whopping 64 million.
Posted by Admin on July 19th, 2009 :: Filed under Beef cattle, Canada, Education and public awareness, Housing
Tags :: artificial insemination, beef, cattle, reproduction
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