1. You need a firmly packed base of dirt to place the hoops for minimal seepage.2. The biggest problem with hoops is treatment of individual animals. Struthers uses hinged sorting panels car and walks through each barn daily to check for sick animals.3. Quality bedding is a top priority. "We bought our own round baler because we treat cornstalks as a main crop now," says Struthers. Bean stubble works, too, he says, but it is not quite as absorbent as cornstalks.4. "Don''t skimp on bedding," says Struthers. "If you think the pigs might need more bedding, they do."Husbandry helpProducts that help with animal husbandry receive frequent mention in the survey. Breeding and selection management products get special acclaim from producers.

Most serious players in the high-end bracket of today''s ironing market have in their range at least one steam generator, also known as an ironing system, and with an average price of 134 [pounds sterling], these products should provide dealers with ample opportunity for greater margins than with conventional irons."The introduction of steam generators has had a positive effect on the whole iron market block and has great potential," says Caroline Herold, marketing director of Philips DAP."It is still in its infancy and has to mature, but currently growth is five times greater than that of traditional irons and this is very exciting," she enthuses.

"Because of the PMO requirements, there is an exorbitant amount of valves on the backside of the vats in cheese production," explains Tim Tolley, project engineer at Davisco in Le Sueur, Minn. Besides the cost of the valves themselves, additional controls and other equipment must be capitalized. In Jerome''s case, the additional infrastructure required up to 6 feet of floor space to the backside of each vat. Deadhead piping and other redundant equipment clutter the space.A standard, PMO-approved mix-proof valve clogged up in seconds because heaters of cheese-curd particulate, car so Sudmo''s engineers adapted a unit with a 4-inch valve. That posed some problems in sizing the leak-detection port. Ultimately, the port was reduced to 2.5 inches to match the CIP port. A 4-inch valve is coupled to a 6-inch body to accommodate particulate flow. FDA authorities reviewed the design and recommended minor modifications, and a year after the project began, the system was up and running.

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