Since 2010, L. Verbakel B.V. has been manufacturing the VERBA Pigletfeeder at its own factory in Sint-Oedenrode. The Pigletfeeder is a popular automatic feeder for farrowing piglets, fitted with a 10-litre feed hopper. Jeroen Gloudemans, director of L. Verbakel B.V., explains: “The Pigletfeeder is an easily accessible automatic feeder for piglets in farrowing pens and, thanks to its stainless steel frame, can be easily fitted into the partition wall. This means that only one Pigletfeeder is needed for every two farrowing pens, saving half the floor space compared to the traditional piglet trough that is clamped into the floor. Thanks to its easy adjustment and 10-litre storage hopper, the Pigletfeeder also offers much greater ease of use compared to these piglet troughs, which need to be refilled regularly.”
Recently, VERBA has been receiving regular requests to produce an affordable version in which the trough can be removed in a user-friendly way so that it can be cleaned easily.
“Dairy products are very often fed to newborn piglets via the trough of the Piglet Feeder. If you switch to dry feed at a later stage using the same Piglet Feeder, it is strongly recommended that you clean the stainless steel trough thoroughly. We know from experience that this is not a popular task and is quite labour-intensive. We received a request from the market to come up with a solution to this at an acceptable price. We took on that challenge,” continues Gloudemans.
“We gave this a great deal of thought with our team and had to modify our standard Pigletfeeder several times to arrive at this final model. Ultimately, we succeeded to our complete satisfaction and can now produce this option at a low additional cost. We then had the Pigletfeeder extensively tested in practice. People were impressed by its ease of use and also by the minimal additional cost. The trough can be removed very easily and, once cleaned, is also very easy to put back in place and secure firmly with a simple movement.”
Verbakel certainly does not shy away from bespoke work and is happy to accommodate such requests. Gloudemans continues: “Because we manufacture everything ourselves at our own factory in Sint-Oedenrode, we are able to respond quickly to such requests. As people know we’re happy to work on these projects, they know exactly where to find us. This means we identify market demands at an early stage and stay at the forefront of development. We also really enjoy taking on such challenges, especially when the customer is subsequently pleased with the result, as was the case with this Piglet Feeder. What’s more, we all learn a great deal from it. It’s not uncommon for us to be able to add a new product like this to our range permanently after extensive testing, such as this Piglet Feeder with a removable trough.”
At the LIV in Venray, Verbakel will be presenting the Piglet Feeder with a removable trough to the general public.
Article on varkensbedrijf.nl =”https://www.varkensbedrijf.nl/nieuwsartikel/2017/v… “
Article on Pig Business.nl = “http://www.pigbusiness.nl/huisvesting/nieuws/5717/…”
Article on Nieuwe Oogst.nu = “https://www.nieuweoogst.nu/nieuws/2017/02/16/verba…“
