AMES, Iowa — Swine producers and anyone involved with maintaining confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) can attend an upcoming workshop on building maintenance and repair.
Four workshops will be provided across the state, beginning Aug. 17 in Plymouth County. Each workshop is the same, and all are conducted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The workshops will discuss concrete cess pit maintenance and construction, truss management, roof and moisture management and other repair and maintenance issues that can help protect the CAFO building and extend its life.
Participants also will learn about unique ways to allow clean air into the attic space and minimize pit-ventilated gases from entering the attic during periods of minimum ventilation, such as winter months, which helps to reduce roof corrosion. Ways to maintain concrete slats, including their repair to help enhance their usable life, will also be discussed.
“This workshop was in high demand last year but had to be postponed due to COVID,” said Kapil Arora, field agricultural engineer with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. “These are the topics we felt people need to plan for because these are high-dollar ticket items and can be very expensive to fix.”
The workshops are geared toward livestock producers, CAFO owners and contractors, facility managers, maintenance crew members, engineers, designers and others interested in CAFO maintenance.
The workshops are being offered in collaboration with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and are sponsored by the Iowa Pork Producers Association, Hog Slat, Pinnacle, AgVice, Premier Ag Systems, FarmTek, Ag Property Solutions, Manure Magic, Hills Bank and Washington State Bank.
Workshop dates and locations:
- Aug. 17. ISU Extension and Outreach Plymouth County office. 251 12th St. SE, LeMars. Register at 712-546-7835.
- Aug. 18. Ed Prince Building at Hamilton County Fairgrounds. 1200 Bluff St., Webster City. Register at 515-832-9597.
- Aug. 19. Borlaug Learning Center Northeast Research Farm. 3327 290th St., Nashua. Register at 641-228-1453.
- Aug. 20. ISU Extension and Outreach Washington County. 2223 250th St., Washington. Register at 319-653-4811.
Registration is $20 and includes all materials and lunch. All workshops are the same. Pre-register online at least two days before the workshop you wish to attend.
