In addition to daily seminars and the youth swine judging contest the Iowa Pork Congress also featured over 300 exhibitors with some using the event as an opportunity to release and showcase their new products.

Ag Property Solutions

Ag Property Solutions of Emmetsburg used the venue to launch their new dedicated parts and equipment division and product catalog.

“We have our first release, volume one of our product catalog,” said Michelle Kubat, marketing manager for Ag Property Solutions. “We’ve always had product, but we have not promoted it within one division.”

-Messenger photo by Kriss Nelson
The 2020 Iowa Pork Congress featured over 300 exhibitors. Several of those used the event to release new and innovative technologies onto the marketlace.

According to Kubat, Ag Property Solutions not only builds agriculture animal structures for the swine, chicken, turkey and dairy industry, but they are able to service those buildings and provide products for those buildings in addition to structures built by other companies.

“Whether we did or didn’t build the barn, we can supply equipment and supplies,” she said. “At Ag Property Solutions, our tagline is ‘where design meets possibility.’ We are taking that dream, that idea, helping them from start to finish, again, the full circle, being able to do all aspects of it even when they are done with their building.”

Kubat said introducing their new dedicated parts and equipment division and product catalog at the Iowa Pork Congress was the perfect place.

“It’s a successful show. This is always a great show for us,” she said. “On top of just meeting people, seeing new people, getting meetings taken care of — our sales people have scheduled meetings and have met with many people – that was beneficial and we have gotten some positive feedback and semi-commitments for projects this year.”

PigEasy LLC

PigEasy LLC. of Templeton also introduced something new at the 2020 Iowa Pork Congress.

Dave Klocke, president of PigEasy LLC. was on hand visiting with potential customers about their new BrEasy Targeted Ventilation system as well as their other products– some that have been offered by the company for two decades.

BrEasy is a sliding baffle that focuses on the pit fan’s air flow to draw out the coldest and heaviest gases from right about the manure line.

“It goes down into the pit pump out on pit ventilated barns and helps the pit fan do the job it is really designed to do and that’s pulling the air that is down in the pit out of the barn,” said Klocke.

BrEasy can easily be retrofitted onto existing barns as well as installed in new construction, Klocke said ultimately providing better health for the pigs, the people that work in the barn as well as the health of the manure that is staying in the manure pit.

Another benefit, Klocke said of the BrEasy Targeted Ventilation is that it removes the coldest air right above the manure line, which reduces propane use throughout the colder months.

“We studied heater run times in a barn in Southern Minnesota, heater run times were lowered 40 percent. That’s a huge reduction in heat usage. And, at the same time of lowering propane run time, it also lowered mortalities,” he said.

Another study, Klocke said was performed by Iowa State University, across four different barn types – all deep pit buildings, for a 12 week period. Each site had a control barn without BrEasy and then a BrEasy barn.

“On average, it lowered ammonia levels inside the barn by 30 percent and lowered the odor inside the barn by 40 percent,” he said. “Anytime you lower the odor inside the barn, it will be lowered outside the barn.”

Klocke said new BrEasy Targeted Ventilation is becoming available at right about the perfect time.

“There’s nothing else like it on the market,” he said. “There’s a move to move away from pit fans and go to wall fans. There’s reasons for that, but I think one of the reasons is because pit fans weren’t performing very well – they weren’t doing what they were supposed to do. This really enhances the performance of pit fans.”

Katie Holtz, vice president of PigEasy LLC said the company offers a wide range of products that drive efficiency on the farm and help to increase production and felt the 2020 Iowa Pork Congress was the perfect time to announce the release of BrEasy.

“We’re one of the top pork producing states in the U.S., we’re from Iowa, so it’s great to have an exhibit in our state,” she said. “I think people in Iowa and in the Midwest are really embracing new innovations and technologies so it is exciting to bring this out here.”

“I think a lot of people come to these shows to see new products being introduced to the market,” said Klocke. “It’s been a very successful show.”