March 26, 2025 • 45 mins
Eric Rupnow's journey through agriculture—from his roots in Wisconsin to his role at J&D Manufacturing—reveals how ventilation technology transforms livestock operations across species. Driven by a passion for creating optimal environments where animals thrive, Rupnow brings practical solutions to complex airflow challenges in poultry, swine, and dairy facilities.
The conversation dives deep into why ventilation serves as an "unpaid employee" on farms when implemented correctly. Drawing from real-world examples, Rupnow shares the story of a dairy operation that virtually eliminated calf treatments after switching to tunnel ventilation—challenging conventional wisdom about keeping young animals warm at any cost. Similarly, a poultry producer in the Southwest saves approximately $20,000 monthly through strategic fan placement and high-efficiency motors that paid for themselves within six months.
What makes J&D's approach unique is their development of integrated solutions specifically designed for modern challenges like cage-free housing. Their light trap combination systems maintain clean interior walls while optimizing airflow, demonstrating how innovative engineering responds to industry evolution. The company partners with complementary technology providers rather than attempting to master everything, ensuring farmers receive best-in-class complete systems.
Looking toward the future, Rupnow envisions more precise control systems, filtered positive pressure applications to combat airborne diseases, and continued innovation across species. Perhaps most valuable is his advice to challenge traditional approaches—even when you think you have the right answer. This mindset has led to breakthrough solutions for problems farmers didn't know they had.
The discussion highlights the critical importance of involving barn-level staff in equipment shows and innovation processes. These frontline workers often identify problems and solutions that might be missed by management. Their practical experience proves invaluable when developing ventilation systems that truly deliver on-farm results.
Whether you're operating a massive integrated operation or a small specialty farm, understanding how air moves through your facilities could be the difference between struggling and thriving. Reach out to ventilation specialists who can help analyze your specific challenges and develop solutions that improve animal health, worker satisfaction, and ultimately, your bottom line.
Check out J&D Manufacturing - https://jdmfg.com/
Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Commercial Accounts - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brandon Mulnix (00:26):
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I'm your host, Brandon Mulnix,and on today's episode I have
Eric Rupnow.
Eric is going to be speakingwith us from J&D Fans today and
he is passionate aboutventilation.
Passionate about ventilation.
Eric has been a big fan of theshow and we've had lots of good
(00:47):
conversations, whether at thedifferent IPPE or Peak or those
things.
And, man, when I could see hispassion for ventilation and the
fact that we've also gotten achance to work together on a
couple of projects, I had toshare Eric with you guys.
So welcome to the show, Eric.
Eric Rupnow (01:01):
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
It's always good to talk likeagriculture and if we can dive
into the ventilation piece,let's have some fun.
Brandon Mulnix (01:11):
Absolutely.
Eric.
Will you share a little bitabout who you are with the
listeners?
Eric Rupnow (01:15):
Okay, my name again , eric Rupnow.
I grew up north of Wausau,wisconsin, kind of right smack
in the center of the state.
My dad was a dairy kind ofright smack in the center of the
state.
My dad was a dairy veterinarianand we had grew up with sheep
and horses and involved in the4-H programs real heavy
livestock judging, showinglivestock, all that stuff you
know.
and kind of had that dream as akid.
(01:36):
You know that you're going toend up out west, you know, on
some big cattle ranch or feedlotor something like that.
So I ended up taking my collegetime at North Dakota State
University and got that degreein animal and range science.
And when I was getting readyfor graduation I realized, guess
what, I don't want to make$15,000 a year and live in a
(01:57):
bunkhouse.
So, cause, I'm really not acowboy.
Brandon Mulnix (02:01):
No future on Yellowstone for you no
Yellowstone for me.
Eric Rupnow (02:05):
So I ended up entering the swine industry and
it's 1995 that industry wasgrowing and seeking and finding
people to be a part of thatintegration.
They also had it set up that itcreated some work-life balance
for people.
A lot of times agriculturedoesn't always create work-life
balance right.
So I had it set up that way,moved myself to Pipestone,
(02:28):
minnesota and started that.
So I worked in the swineindustry for most of my career,
whether it be in the sow andboar, stud stuff, weaned to
finish, kind of worked my waythrough all of that and ended up
going.
I got to find something alittle bit different and ended
up on the swine nutrition sideand that ended up being just a
(02:50):
lot of consulting, if that makessense, where you're just
helping people solve problemsand if you're there on their
lucky day maybe you pick up somebusiness.
Married 27 years, my wifeLarissa.
We met in Louisville, kentucky,at livestock judging, national
livestock judging contest.
We raised two boys again thesame way that we were raised
around showing livestock andthose things.
(03:11):
We still have a small flock ofewes and sell some sheep to kids
for their show projects andstuff like that.
Try to help them out.
One son ended up becoming adesign engineer and the other
one he's finishing up his senioryear in sports management and
played college football.
So that was quite theexperience for all of us A lot
of fun, a lot of fun.
Brandon Mulnix (03:32):
Where do you play?
Eric Rupnow (03:32):
football at Carroll University in Waukesha,
wisconsin.
It's a Division III schoolplaying the CCIW conference.
So if anybody who followsDivision III football knows that
North Central won the DivisionIII National Championship and
that's one of their schools fromtheir conference that we had a
hard time with just likeeverybody else.
But no, that's a greatexperience Again, a different
(03:56):
experience than I could everprovide a kid growing up because
of agriculture.
You know he found that again,had passion for it.
You know he's currently tryingto get himself a graduate
assistant program and get hisMBA and kind of move through
that, but he still credits beinga part of agriculture and
livestock as a big thing.
You know, today we live inNemaha, iowa and, as I was
(04:18):
telling you earlier, nemaha Iowais famous for the Farmall
Promenade and it was a group offarmers locally that basically
half of them dressed like women,half dressed like men.
The men were on, I believe theywere on H's or M's and women
were on C's and they squaredanced these things and it was
actually an amazing thing to seethe cool thing.
(04:40):
We talk about work ethic a lotin the ag industry or in any
industry.
Both my sons had theopportunity to work for one of
those guys and you know bailinghay on a rack and out in the sun
and you know helping tear downthis old building or whatever
the daily picking rocks, allthat stuff.
So they got a chance to havethat work and create that work
(05:00):
ethic and that's kind of thebeauty.
I think that's what fuels thepassion for agriculture and
myself and my wife, becausewe're you're part of it but we
don't own it like the typicalperson thinks of a farmer.
Right?
She spent 25 years teachingagriculture education, she's an
ffa advisor and now she worksfor collison embryo where they
do uh, basically reproductivetechnologies and cattle and
(05:24):
small ruminants.
So that's kind of how we landwhere we're at.
I wish somebody had told mewhen I was 21 years old what the
poultry industry was, becauseit's a pretty amazing thing.
That's a story that reallyneeds to be told to people where
that chicken and egg comes from, because there's a lot of
opportunity out there for people.
I mean it's pretty impressive.
Because there's a lot ofopportunity out there for people
(05:46):
, I mean it's pretty impressive.
That's one thing I like goingto IPPE just because I see how
big that industry is and howmuch it comes together.
I don't think any industrycomes together from the
processing and productiontogether like they do in the
poultry industry.
It's impressive.
Brandon Mulnix (06:01):
It is definitely a different scale than the pork
industry.
I've been to the world porkcongress there in iowa and it's
hands down, you know, quite abit smaller, quite a bit more
confined compared to ipp whereyou've got man, one of the
biggest convention halls in theus, full of poultry equipment
providers and technicians, plusanother room off to the side.
(06:23):
Even that's got all the feedagitatives and a room I've never
even been in.
It's crazy down there.
Eric Rupnow (06:29):
I made a point last year to go walk through there,
and you know then I'm talking toa lot of people that I'd worked
with in the past from the swineside of things, you know, and
you do see a lot of crossover.
You know JD manufacturing.
It was started, as some's beenin pipes on race cars and
decided, hey, we're going tomake freestalls for dairy barns.
(06:49):
And then Don Radsky, who's thefounder owner of the company,
was kind of an engineering geekjunkie whatever you want to call
term you want to use there.
He started diving into thisventilation sphere term you want
to use there.
He started diving into thisventilation sphere and that has
been a focus for probably halfof the country's 40, whatever 43
(07:11):
years of existence and that'skind of what drew me to it.
You know I went to the iowaport congress and was visiting
with kirk brinks, who was the vpof sales and marketing, and
we're standing next to this fanthat was released there and that
year at IPPE in 2020.
Brandon Mulnix (07:30):
Yeah, it had been January of 2020.
Eric Rupnow (07:33):
And I'm standing there looking at this fan and
I'm like he's like what do youthink?
I said this is the greatestthing ever.
So I'm looking at a 58 inch fan.
It has no belts and pulleys andnothing to break, or you know,
just if everything's working.
It should be a maintenance freething, right?
It should be something that putin a wall.
It's going to work.
The design of it, everythingabout it.
(07:54):
It was a breakdown fan.
So you talk about just buyingfans.
We tell people we're sellingyou cfm, right?
and we can sell you a 70-inchfan and I get 17 of them on a
truck.
Or I can sell you this 58-inchfan that does the same CFM and I
get 75 of them on a truck.
Yeah, you got to put themtogether, but we're shipping 300
(08:15):
of them to California.
Guess what it's going to payfor itself.
So kind of that innovativething is what brought me to J&D.
I always, kind of, through allof that swine, saw so many
failures, mistakes in design ofbarns and then in execution, of
how poor ventilation caused moreproblems in terms of health and
(08:37):
disease and just growth andjust deficiencies.
I mean there's so many things.
I mean there's a lot of otherthings that go into it.
But ventilation failures ormishaps or whatever you want to
call, they can really ruin agroup of hogs, and I think it's
the same in anything else.
We dive into the dairy too.
A lot of people think, oh,dairy calf, keep it warm.
Yeah, but warm and wet's notgood for lungs, it doesn't
(09:01):
matter.
So it's in anything.
We've got a providing a greatenvironment, 70 degree day, you
know, in a nice little treegrove.
It's perfect for everybody andevery species of livestock too.
How do we create that in masspopulation facilities.
And that's the challenge, andthat's the opportunity, and
(09:22):
that's what kind of keeps megoing through this thing.
Brandon Mulnix (09:25):
Well, J&D, what is a big problem that they've
solved in the industry?
Eric Rupnow (09:31):
In the poultry industry.
I think the big problem thatwas solved was putting together
a light trap combination systemfor a cage-free house that kept
everything flush to the inside.
There wasn't anything stickingout.
And then it was tested.
You know, it was tested pullingthat air through that light
(09:52):
trap and making sure that thestatic pressure in between the
light trap and the fan is whereit's supposed to be and then
making sure the size matcheswe're not overworking the motors
or overamping the motors andthings like that.
So that made a big thing.
One thing that I see that JND isdoing the past two years and
(10:13):
then moving forward is okay,there's so many pieces to
putting together a ventilationsystem, right, you've got, you
know, inlets and actuators andall of these different things
stir fans and all of that.
You can go and try to createyour own, say, sidewall in it or
tunnel inlet, right, and that'sa tough thing to create.
(10:35):
So what we've done is gone tomore partnering with other
companies to say, okay, the TPIinlets, I look at those as the
best in the world.
I haven't seen or foundanything that was better.
They're continuing to innovate.
They kind of have the samemindset as J&D does in moving
forward and they've done somethings.
(10:57):
Their TPI area and inlet kindof just a masterful piece of
engineering just to be able toincrease that air speed coming
out.
Get a further throw than 10 feet.
We can throw that air 30 feetinto the house.
Well, we've got a lot morestratification of that air.
Then that air is warmer.
You know we're talking aboutcold weather ventilation.
That's kind of a key and inthat that throws like that on
(11:20):
minimum ventilation.
Maybe we don't need that stirfan right away on that second
set of nests, maybe we can moveit in a little bit.
Just gives us moreopportunities.
We've kind of gone that way.
We're going to stick on makingthe best fans we can make with
the best efficiencies and thehighest outputs and the least
(11:40):
amount of maintenance.
We focus on that.
Partner with people who aredoing the best on a singular
thing.
Then we can provide kind ofthat ventilation package.
Brandon Mulnix (11:52):
Yeah, you've been around the block when it
comes to these projects andusually when you and I get
together we're able to kind oftalk through some of the
industry challenges.
If you can talk directly to afarmer and what's the value of
ventilation and why it's soimportant, this is your
opportunity, because thelistener group may not be from
necessarily farming, but theyalso they're all over the
(12:13):
industry and can look and seewhat ventilation is.
So do me a favor explain thevalue of good ventilation in a
house and some of the aspectsthat we may not know about.
Eric Rupnow (12:22):
Well, I mean first and foremost it's animal
well-being, right.
It is providing an environmentwhere those animals can thrive.
They need all the things thatwe as human needs they need.
You know, they need to becooled down, they need to be
warmed up.
We all do better when the airis a little drier, a little less
humid.
If we've got too much humid, weall get a little hot.
(12:44):
If it's 85 degrees outside andthe humidity is 90%, guess what
it's going to feel like it's 110.
Just all of those things.
But when we talk to people and Ican bring up just a simple,
simple little deal that weworked on here a couple of
months ago with a beef cattlefarmer, right, and he's got this
small building that he dropscalves in and that's kind of
(13:07):
kept a little warm, but thenonce they're out of there a day
or two and then they move on outinto maybe a three-sided shed
or even just a windbreak,because once that calf is up and
going it can handle some ofthat weather.
Well, he decided he wasn'tgoing to go with our design, he
just wanted something tode-stratify some air.
Decided he wasn't going to gowith our design, he just wanted
something to de-stratify someair.
I'm like, okay, that's fine.
Got the call back I guess I wasat IBBE and he says this
(13:29):
doesn't work.
I said what do you want to do?
You want to do the design thatwe did, where we were pulling
air in and we were forcing thede-stratification with this
de-stratification fan and thenwe were exhausting air and
getting a 15 minute air exchangerate because we've got to get
that moisture down.
Basically, he's bringing incalves and it's cold and wet in
there and he can't get calvesdry.
(13:51):
He's getting, you know, lungissues, pneumonias and things
like this popping up real quickand he's like I got to change my
way.
So I think just providing anenvironment for your animals to
thrive, whatever species theyare, that's kind of the.
That's kind of the.
That's the key.
That's the key.
I mean, if you're going to gocheap on ventilation, I say good
luck I've been in buildingswith high ammonia levels that
(14:12):
are just absolutely.
Brandon Mulnix (14:14):
There's a reason for that.
You talked about turnover airturnover.
I mean all those animals arebreathing.
They're breathing in oxygen,letting out co2.
That air's got to turn over.
Eric Rupnow (14:22):
If it's not, it gets stale if it's a broiler,
that broiler's putting out BTUslike crazy, you know.
If it's a dairy cow, I mean youjust think BTUs coming off of
that cow that's eating that muchforage and she, just she
basically has this hugefermentation vat that's putting
off heat.
But we've got to displace thatsomewhere.
We've got to make thesebuildings work right.
(14:43):
A little pull.
It's a whole lot different thana turkey.
A turkey is different than apig.
You know, as you move throughthis, what their temperature
regulation is is different inall species.
But I think, when you get rightdown to it, it is about
providing that nice, dryenvironment prevents disease,
prevents animals from crowdingright.
(15:03):
So if we create a hot spotinside of the center of a barn
and whatever animal it is wantsto get away from there, they're
getting away from there, butthen they're crowding and
they're creating more heat.
And I mean you need a placewhere everybody wants to lay out
and it's like the beach, youknow, everybody wants to lay out
, get a little sun, you know,and just make it a nice,
(15:25):
beautiful environment.
When we take disease out ofthis program and we everything's
healthy and the nutrition'sright, we're going to create
products right At a really highrate.
Every employee that's workingwith their boots in the barn
every day.
They want that.
They want their life easy.
They don't want to be treatinganimals.
(15:45):
They don't want to be sortingoff stuff.
They don't want to be pullingdeads.
They don't want any of that.
If they can walk through a barnand go, everything looks good
and walk out, that's the easiestpart of their day.
Brandon Mulnix (15:55):
Well and it's easier for them too, in just
their environment.
I mean, if it's a healthyenvironment for the birds, it's
going to be healthy for thestaff, and in a day where
staffing is tough, that's theirwork environment.
You know, my office is at 70degrees all day long.
They should be able to have 70degree all day long as well,
even when it's a hundred degreesoutside, and it's possible with
ventilation.
Eric Rupnow (16:17):
It is.
It is, it is possible andthat's the beauty of it.
It's just GND I talked about alittle bit about can we take
maintenance?
away right that they don't haveto check this stuff, and I think
that's the goal.
I don't think we're there yet100, but that's the goal.
Any issues that we've had werewe.
We work to make them to get tothat goal.
I mean that's the whole, wholepoint of it.
(16:38):
You know we get that goal thatwe put, I think, when I started
the first case.
So what are you selling me?
I said I hope to sell you somefans and I hope that you don't
talk to me again until you needto buy some more for a new
project.
Right, I mean that's kind ofthe goal.
Same with you.
We can set up a control systemfor somebody and it just works
(16:58):
and it does what it's supposedto do.
And you call me for some minortweaks here and there, but the
most part it's just you're rockand roll.
Brandon Mulnix (17:06):
I mean that's, that's always the goal that is
prism's goal, by the way, is tomake your stuff sing and not
have to have people call you atall and to make sure that 70
degrees, based on the animalmovement and everything else,
that works together.
And amazes me as thesebuildings continue to evolve and
new designs come out anddifferent environments,
different locations, whetherit's the dry deserts of Arizona
(17:28):
versus the humid Midwest, oreven humid or Southeast.
It's crazy because there'sdifferent things that have to
happen.
Now I'm going to changesubjects here and I'm going to
have you talk direct to thatfarmer who's getting ready to
build his building.
What would you say to him orher?
Eric Rupnow (17:44):
In today's world.
First off, what are we growinghere?
What are we putting in thatbuilding?
I mean, that's where it starts.
And then what his vision for itis too a little bit.
I know we worked on someprojects together where the
vision was brought to us right.
It's my job to execute thatvision.
Well, that doesn't alwayshappen.
Sometimes there's a guy whocomes I'm putting hey, what are
(18:10):
your thoughts here?
I can put together the numbersfor you.
I can do this, and one of thebiggest things that I try to do
when we can is to not only showthem how maybe the calculations
work together to make this rightflow simulation so they can see
(18:38):
what this building is going tolook like.
One of the really hard thingsto do in a flow simulation is
mild, cold weather ventilationthrough a cage type house.
It's very, very difficultbecause you've got so much going
on.
So we kind of trust that coldweather math and then we work
towards that warm weather, sayat a pullet house.
What drives the agricultureindustry is what does the
(18:59):
consumer want too?
So we're putting in yourselfinto a position where you can
meet a niche.
Sometimes you know where thecaged free thing is big right, I
mean it just it is, and it'sdriven by the consumer.
How can we put yourself in aposition where that barn can be
cage free and then if oh hey,guess what those don't have any
value to us, now we can put 15,20 more birds in this house and
(19:23):
make it into a standard deal too.
I think there's a lot of thatstuff that's got to be taken
into consideration.
One of the things that's beenpretty big right now obviously
every poultry farmer and dairyfarmer now deals with the high
path avian influenza.
We've got some customers thatare talking about filtering
barns, doing positive pressurefilter.
(19:44):
Sometimes those are remodels.
That creates huge challengesbecause you've got to be
completely sealed up, you know.
So this isn't just we're goingto put some fans in the wall and
slap.
So this isn't just we're goingto put some fans in the wall and
slap some filters in there andit's going to make a difference.
No, we have to make sure thatthis is really, really, really
done right so that we controlevery bit of air that goes into
and out of that building.
(20:06):
The other thing that we kind ofdrive is fan efficiencies.
As we talk about this, I askthe question a lot of times,
especially in a bigger project.
What are you paying for yourelectricity?
Is it four and a half cents oris it 15 and a half cents?
Where do you live is going todrive what type of fan you might
(20:31):
buy, just because of capitalcosts, of a high efficiency fan
or an ECM or electronicallycommutated fan, which basically
is taking your power from AC,converting it to DC power and
then we can control how manyRPMs that fan runs, and the
slower the RPMs, the higher CFMper watt becomes, depending on
the size of the facility.
I mean, I've got a farmer in theSouthwest that, running his
fans the way he does, he figureshe saves himself $20,000 a
(20:54):
month.
How is that not a return?
And when we did the math on it,he bought 45 more fans than he
needed, but he says they paidfor themselves in six months.
And I think that's some of thevalue when we look at things is
how can we make your barn moreefficient?
Talked about things being ratedto power wash or dry wash.
(21:14):
How easy is it to access whatyou need?
We talked about that light trapcombination system as kind of
being something that's fairlyinnovative.
You know it's built to be ableto just open doors, like on a
closet, instead of taking outstuff and setting it over here.
It's all hinged up and then youlock it up.
I'm trying to make things userfriendly and make things work
(21:36):
together and I think that's a,that's a product that came from
working with an industry partnerwho wanted to solve a problem.
Those are things that we that Ireally like doing.
I like finding that, but whenyou talk about that farmer, it's
really about getting to see andunderstand how air flows.
I think that's the biggestpiece.
And it's the hardest thing tokind of see.
(21:57):
It's easy to see once you'vegot it done and you put some
smoke behind it.
Oh yeah, we can see how the airflows.
We've talked a little bit inthe past about tunnel
ventilating a pullet house or alayer house that has cages in it
.
You see a lot of times wherethey look at what is the size of
that inlet door or how manybirds are in there and they do
it off CFM per bird.
(22:19):
And you really have to look atwhat you're putting in for fans
is basically the dimensions ofyour walkways in between the
cages, because that's where theair is going to flow.
Everything else is a brick andit doesn't really flow through
the cages.
It doesn't flow the way maybewe think it should.
Water and air the same.
They find the path of leastresistance and they take it.
(22:41):
We see that a lot dairy barnstoo, where by the time you get
into them the air is up abovethem and it's not doing you
having any value to cooling yourlivestock.
So it's really about justunderstanding and being able to
see how air does move and flow.
Brandon Mulnix (22:58):
One thing that might come off a little
controversial, my thought is, ischallenging old time farming a
little bit.
Even if you think you knowexactly what is the right thing
to do, it's okay to challengewhat you know by getting other
people's opinions and pokingholes in it.
One of the common projects weworked on.
The veterinarian that was incharge of it basically said
(23:19):
here's my concept.
Guys, tear it apart.
And he didn't stop.
I mean, he continually evolvedthat concept and continually to
made modifications, because itrealized that with cage-free
it's a different process,there's different challenges.
The height of the room bringsin its own challenges.
You think, oh my gosh, thishouse over here has an
(23:41):
additional three feet.
That should be perfect.
No, the air went there and itwasn't circulating the rest of
the barn.
And you're like well, thatdoesn't make any sense.
Well, no, it does.
You just said it.
Path of least resistance.
I mean, how have you recentlychallenged somebody that thought
they knew exactly what theywere doing and you were able to
go in and basically change theirmind?
Eric Rupnow (24:01):
you know, bring me the cadillac, you know, make
this barn a cadillac, right.
And after we were sitting downfor a while I said I'm sitting
here talking to you guys andtalking to you about this stuff
(24:23):
and you look confused and theman in charge says you know,
we've been sitting here doingthis forever tunnel ventilating
these barns down here in thesoutheast, and you just told us
we've been doing it wrong.
And he said the first personthat I've ever listened to that
made sense and it was on thatthought process and where is
your pinch point for air?
So basically they've beenoverworking fans.
(24:45):
They said that theirmaintenance on their old belt
drive stuff was just insane,like three times a year changing
stuff out.
I said that makes sense.
Basically, have anunderstanding of where your
pinch point is.
That's the most amount of airthat you can pull through.
Whatever cubic feet you've got,square footage you have in that
opening, that is the maximumamount of CFM you can put on
(25:06):
that wall, exhausting it out.
And once they kind ofunderstood that, they're like
okay, let's rock and roll.
I can tell you what, taking youover to something a little bit
different a dairy calf bornventilation.
Everybody kind of has a concernabout keeping calves warm.
So they do some positivepressure stuff with tubes and
they do work well and they kindof move stuff throughout the
(25:28):
house, but you're not gettingmuch cooling out of that.
Again, the same thing where welooked at that project and said
break this apart.
I had somebody on the end of itcome to me and say how do I do
this?
And we went and broke it downand we ended up tunnel
ventilating dairy calves.
And I got up there and I metwith this gal who's running this
farm and there's like 30 ofthese little barns there and
(25:50):
they're like 26 feet wide and162 feet long.
I'm like how is this going?
She goes well, this is thefirst barn, this is the first
group that we put in here andwe're getting ready to move them
out today.
And she says I haven't treateda calf yet.
I said how's that compared towhat you used to do?
She goes we used to treatcalves every day.
They allowed me to work withthem to challenge how they've
(26:11):
done things.
And when we got done and put ittogether, they're like yes,
let's roll the way we went andsuccess.
The person running it isn'tgoing to be mad because they're
okay with not treating.
Now they get to really do agood job of their care and daily
tasks.
And then they again with highefficiency, low maintenance
(26:33):
motors.
They don't have to worry aboutany maintenance and messing
around with things.
So there's always a way tochallenge the old school way.
I remember talking about thatproject that we worked on, you
know.
I remember going to anotherfarm where we worked on
expanding that facility too, andI remember the veterinarian
(26:54):
being in the barn with you know,one of the workers and telling
him kind of what was going tohappen.
And he says you're going tohate it, right, you're not going
to like this.
It's going to be harder thanwhat you're doing now.
And I think in talking withpeople now, as opposed to three
years ago now, that they've kindof figured it out.
It's not that hard.
Once you kind of say, hey, wecan do this, and everybody buys
(27:19):
in and says let's rock and roll,I think they figure it out.
It's not that hard.
I think Iowa State Universityswine people talk about
ventilation as their unpaidemployee and I think that's a
real important way to kind offeel that out.
I mean, I like that term.
It's my unpaid employee, it canmake me money if I take care of
(27:43):
it and utilize it properly.
Brandon Mulnix (27:45):
Well, it's interesting because one of the
challenges that we found is thedesigners aren't the ones in the
barn sometimes how theytranslate that information and
that learning down to their farmstaff to operate it in the way
that it was designed.
Because if you take some of thebest chicken houses and you
(28:06):
don't operate them as designed,or you decide to maybe not seal
them up as well, and now the airis uncontrollable in those
spaces, they can be a nightmare.
Eric Rupnow (28:17):
You're so right.
And it doesn't matter whatspecies of animal it is, if it's
designed right, you know,making sure it gets trained not
only just trained on how to setit up and run it and those kinds
of things, but training on howto, you know, troubleshoot it
and make sure that the thingsare the way they're supposed to
be.
Ok, let's just set this thingup and let's measure our
(28:39):
airspeed.
You know, coming out of aninlet, let's measure our
airspeed as we kind of exit thebarn.
You know we can do some thingsa whole lot easier without
animals in there, just to makesure that they're working right.
You know, when you talk aboutcommissioning a brand new barn,
I've always encouraged people tolet's think about kind of
recommissioning it in a simplerway in between our groups, just
(29:02):
to make sure it's still doingwhat it's supposed to do and
maybe an actuator didn't slip alittle bit and those inlets are
open a half an inch more thanthey're supposed to be or
whatever that situation is, andwe can reset it and get it right
.
Yeah, it's always aboutexecution on the farm.
You know, sometimes there'semployees that they have the
right mindset to them.
You can say, okay, on this farmyou're our ventilation guy to
(29:22):
make sure that these things getkind of recommissioned and that
they make sure that they areeverything's acting the way it's
supposed to and performing theway it's supposed to.
Or if we see birds in a housethat all want to congregate in
one spot, there's a reason forthat.
Let's figure it out and let'sfix it.
Brandon Mulnix (29:38):
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of
opportunities as we talk aboutminimum ventilation and we talk
about heat With the new designsin cage-free, as these birds
want to get comfortable, heat'simportant.
When you incentivize a staffmember, maybe to say, hey, you
need to keep your heat bill down, then there's this balance of
do I do the right thing and putheat in the barn?
Heat's important.
Eric Rupnow (29:59):
Outside heat, dry heat.
Dry heat is important and it'svery important to make sure that
you get it in, you get itstratified to get it mixed.
You see this in this wineindustry too, where propane's
expensive.
I mean, and we all get it,propane is expensive.
So we need to make sure thatour minimum ventilation is
(30:20):
dialed in as best as you can getit dialed in for that winter.
But you're still pulling in air.
That's today in Iowa that's 15degrees, right?
So how do you get that airtempered as quickly as you can
before it kind of lands on yourflock, right?
So we talk about speed of thatair coming in through that inlet
(30:41):
.
Can we get it to throw 20, 30feet?
It's throwing in there, it'smixing with that air, that, it's
tempering that air.
And now we've got a nice warmenvironment.
We talk about circulation fans.
Circulation fans are thegreatest thing we've got in
terms of wintertime.
You know we can't have a heaterevery 10 feet, right?
(31:01):
You know we've got four or fiveheaters inside of this huge 70
by 500 foot room.
That's enough BTUs to warm thisfarm up in relation to those
birds.
How do we move that heat aroundso that heat is in every corner
of the building where thosebirds are utilizing that space,
eliminating cold spots and hotspots both the same.
(31:25):
Most of the time when people tryto eliminate or reduce the
amount of heat without dialingin their ventilation, you're
probably going to cause healthissues.
Just because it's the easiestthing to do, we're going to back
the fans up.
Well, now we've slowed the airspeed through there, so the
(31:46):
birds closest to the intake wallare probably a little cold, and
now the birds on the other sideare kind of wet and warm and
they're not very happy either.
It is about air exchange rateand making sure that you're
exchanging that air in that roomfour times an hour.
Now things are a little bitdifferent when we start talking
about bullets and things likethat, where you've got a very
(32:07):
small bird in a very big space,finding your ways to manipulate
your way through that throughsome purging of air and things
like that.
We're going to pull a lot for ashort period of time and allow
that stuff to kind of temper inthere a little bit better.
So there's a lot of ways to doit.
Burning propane creates somereally good growing livestock if
(32:28):
we do it in the right andefficient fashion.
Brandon Mulnix (32:31):
So what's the future of ventilation?
Look like fashion.
So what's the?
Eric Rupnow (32:35):
future of ventilation look like.
Future of ventilation, I trulybelieve, is being able to dial
in and know exactly what youroutput of that fan is.
Coming from the swine industry,minimum ventilation was about a
pit fan, right?
So you're pulling air inthrough the attic, you're
tempering it through a ceilinginlet.
Air in through the attic,you're tempering it through a
(32:56):
ceiling inlet and drawing itdown across the pigs and out the
side.
They're going to run that fanby changing the amount of
electricity that's going to it,right, the voltage going to it,
to slow that fan down.
Well, even in fans that we havelike that, nobody's got a test
to tell you how many CFM it'sdoing and most people just
assume that it's a linear thing.
So if at 2000 CFM, at 50% it'sdoing a thousand, no, it's
(33:19):
probably doing about 600.
So I think that's a big pieceis just being able to dial
everything in that way.
I also think that this filterthing, especially on the pulling
houses, might have a pretty bigfuture, but again it comes down
to how everything is executed.
Have a pretty big future, butagain it comes down to how
everything is executed.
(33:40):
The challenge is we talk aboutpreventing disease, airborne
disease.
We still have to rely on all ofour other biosecurity practices
to make sure that we don'tcarry those diseases in with us.
Whether it's keeping out otherbirds, it's our biosecurity
systems.
And changing clothes, shower in, shower out all the products
that we bring into thesebuildings, making sure that
(34:00):
those are decontaminated,because basically we're talking
about diseases.
They're airborne.
It means that they'reeverywhere, right, so we can
conceal as barn up and do itright, and I think that has some
value.
But again we have to haveeverything else in place too.
I think positive pressure thingsas we look at poultry, I think
can have some value.
But again we have to haveeverything else in place too.
I think positive pressurethings as we look at poultry, I
think can have some value.
(34:21):
It's not used very commonly andit does have its challenges.
But I think the beauty of it aswe talked earlier about these
birds over here, they'recrowding together for a reason
or whatever that we have kind ofthese hot spots and cold spots
in a barn and if we do thatpositive pressure correctly, I
talk about it like blowing up aballoon with a small hole in it,
(34:43):
right, so we can kind of keepthat balloon full and what that
means is we're filling up theballoon.
The building, the airspace isthe balloon.
If we fill that up, we knowthat the air is hitting every
corner of that building, so theair should be similar in terms
of its quality, speed,everything throughout that
(35:05):
facility.
It'd be a challenge.
I'd love to take on thatchallenge.
I'd love to have one of theseguys come and say Eric, let's
work on a positive pressure barn, doesn't have to be filtered or
anything like that, just apositive pressure barn.
I would be all in on it, Iimagine, you would.
I just think it's.
I've talked to some very largeswine integrators that built
(35:28):
some buildings that have someventilation problems.
I've been in them and you know,talked about them and things
like that.
And I talked with them at theIowa Pork Deal again.
I said, you know, finisherwhatever they were 249 and 251,
whatever these finishers were Isaid I'd love to do this with
you.
Just let me know.
Just let me know, because Ithink we can make you know, I
(35:54):
think we can make those pigsgrow exponentially faster than
they are in certain parts ofthose buildings because they
create dead spots.
Brandon Mulnix (35:59):
Well, what's unique about you, eric, is
you've got experience fromacross different species, and I
think sometimes you know wethink specialists in this
industry, the ones that are onlydoing you know eggs, or only
doing poultry.
I mean that's their specialty.
And what's nice is yourexperience from around the
industry.
It's all about animal health,it's all about the different
species, because I think thelessons you're learning in swine
(36:20):
and turkey and all these arereally paying off as wins in the
egg industry as well.
Eric Rupnow (36:25):
Yeah, and I think that's just an important piece
of what J&D is.
You know it was founded as adairy-centric deal and it's
still probably 50% of ourbusiness.
But I'm gonna tell you thatthis poultry and layer side of
it if it hasn't taken it over,it's getting pretty close.
Our name is getting out there.
This is bringing some value tothe industry.
(36:47):
We like the fact that we'rebuilding these things and
constructing them.
When Don decided to spend twoand a half million dollars to
put in an AM amp approved testchamber so that every fan that
we sell we know exactly how it'sgoing to perform, and then I go
out to the field and I'm likeit's performing a little too
well, we got to dial this back.
You know, and those are thethings that I really like and
(37:09):
being able to have thosecapabilities right inside the
door, right president's office.
She walks 30 steps and she canwalk into that test chamber and
talk to those guys and see howthings are going.
And it's really exciting to be apart of something that is
trying to push the envelope,trying to find the new things.
I worked with somebody in mypast who said you know, there's
(37:32):
one trend that never changes interms of going up.
You know, we talk about trends,whether it's stock market
trends or we talk about CMEtrends, things like that.
One trend doesn't change inthat the human population
continues to grow andagriculture's job is to grow
with it and, in the mostefficient way, be able to
provide them nutrition, not justfood.
(37:53):
We need nutrition.
So we need eggs and poultry andmilk and dairy and beef and we
need it all.
How does J&D find a role inmaking producer X get X amount
of eggs over his average in thatbuilding?
Or this dairy farmer?
You know the peak dairyproduction in terms of cows
(38:14):
milking is January, february.
We're sitting in it right now.
How do we extend that milkproduction, that peak milk
production, out into August orSeptember and not get those
drops in June?
You know how can we extend thatproduction out, help them
become more efficient?
In the poultry industry there'sa lot of people who want to be
on the smaller side of things.
How can we make them better atwhat they do and create more,
(38:39):
more product and moreprofitability.
And the same side, theintegrator side, the big
facilities, half million hens ina barn or 10, 12, 25, 000 cows
in a barn how do we make it sothat makes them more efficient
and makes that environment thatmuch better for them too?
It's everybody.
I've had people that take careof little goats and they have
(39:02):
400 dairy goats on feed and okay, let's go.
We've created ventilationsystems around the facilities
they've had and taking someaspects of poultry, some aspects
of swine, some aspects of dairyto bring all this stuff
together and you can create asystem for something that you've
never created before.
It's kind of fun.
Brandon Mulnix (39:21):
Well, Eric, I really do appreciate your time.
Is there anything else that youwant to share with the
listeners?
Eric Rupnow (39:27):
I always be looking and challenging yourselves in
everything that you do.
I think that's what you do atPRISM trying to find innovative
ways to provide solutions,sometimes in my office or in
your office.
If you don't know a problem,you can't come up with a
solution.
So I always feel free to reachout to help find solutions to
whatever problems that you'vegot.
(39:48):
And again, we're here to playour roles in providing nutrition
to our world.
Get right down to it.
That's what we do.
It's cool to watch and work withpeople who are innovative,
working with you guys and someof your smoke detection things.
I just think that's awesome.
I've taken it to a couple ofbig dairy farmers and said, hey,
(40:09):
what do you think they're like?
I don't know about that rightnow.
They're thinking about it.
We can put this in a lot ofdifferent places and make it
work.
Working with TPI and howthey're innovative in their
things.
We started working with anothercompany just on some lighting
stuff and how do we changelighting and how we do things in
(40:29):
the dairy.
Instead of just a straight LEDlight, can we do things
different?
Because we see what we're doingin the poultry industry, in the
layer industry and how we uselighting to create the optimal
condition for those birds to laythe most eggs.
How can we do that in the dairyindustry for those cows to
produce more milk?
I always try to be innovative.
I was asked in a stay interviewthe other day of our core values
(40:53):
which one do I align with?
Innovation is a number one, oneof the things that I bring up,
and I think it was like yourfirst podcast, maybe your second
one.
It was right after IPPE lastyear and you mentioned that you
know you'd like to see more ofthe people that work in the
barns every day getting anopportunity to go to those shows
again, and I've noticed thatacross the board, with the swine
(41:17):
and the dairy too, that it'snot necessarily the people that
are in the barn every day thatgo to those.
And I think having those peoplemaintenance, people, production
people be able to walk throughthose shows and visit with
people and see what's out thereand maybe learn something or
bring things to us as vendors, Ithink that's an ideal thing
(41:39):
that probably maybe needs tocome back to us a little bit.
It's always nice to talk tosomebody who's in the barn every
day and get their views andwhat they see.
Brandon Mulnix (41:49):
Well, I could say I couldn't say it better,
eric, but you did a good job ofquoting that from last year and
I'll reiterate that as we gointo show season is probably
some of the best innovationcomes from the guys that are in
the barns doing the job, and asthe decision makers get further
and further away from the barn,it's hard.
The good input comes from theguys doing it every day, from
(42:10):
the guys putting in the work.
In today's world, I mean, someof the best people in this
industry are the maintenanceguys that are solving problems
and they can tell you what'swrong with your equipment.
Eric Rupnow (42:19):
Yep, they do.
They do.
It's great.
I like it.
There are certain ones outthere that are great about it.
We've got this problem and it'sreoccurring.
All right, I'm going to lookinto it.
Look into it.
Yep, that is a problem.
We're going to get you fixedright.
If it's not a simple fix, it'sredesign right.
(42:39):
We've redesigned things severaltimes to make sure that they do
hold up, because that's a toughthing about being innovative so
you can work on something, youget it put together, it tests
great in a chamber and all ofthat On the farm is a different
story, and a fan that's 60 footoff the ground is a different
story than one that's 10 footoff the ground or three foot off
the ground.
So we have to learn thosethings and bring them back and
(43:00):
make them better.
But that's what we want is wewant those guys that are out
there, whether it's the in-sawcrew or whether it's the people
that are running the barn andtaking care of the birds.
We learn, we make it better andwe move forward, but, again,
staying innovative.
Brandon Mulnix (43:14):
Well, eric, with that, I'm going to pull us into
a close here, because I thinkyou and I could talk forever.
We usually do we usually do, andso thank you, thank you, j&d
fans, for providing Eric to theindustry and giving him an
opportunity to solve problemsacross species.
And, like I said, it's been mypleasure working with you on
different projects and I knowyou truly are making a
(43:35):
difference in this industry, sothank you for that.
Listeners, I can only challengeyou.
This is going to be coming outbefore peak.
Please visit us at peak.
I know J and D is going to beat peak.
Prism controls is going to beat peak.
Please stop and visit, ask yourquestions, send more people.
If you want to do somethingabout your career, don't wait
for your boss to send you to thepeak.
(43:55):
And want to do something aboutyour career, don't wait for your
boss to send you to the peak.
And what I mean by peak isMinneapolis.
It used to be called theMidwest show.
Don't wait for your boss If youwant to do something right for
your own career.
Go and learn.
It's a great place to learn andI'm sure that you're going to
bring more innovation, moreideas back to the farm and in
the future, your leaders aregoing to be more than willing to
send you because there's lotsof conferences, there's lots of
(44:16):
tech talks, there's lots ofvendors.
Those are the places whereeverybody kind of lets their
guard down and you get to see alot of things.
So with peak coming up here ina few weeks when this thing airs
, please attend the show.
Stop by see Eric, stop by thefolks at Prism Controls, visit
with them.
I'm not going to be there thisyear, I'm going to be at a
different show.
Definitely, stop by and say hi.
(44:37):
So with that, I'm going toconsider that my plug for Prism
Controls, like I do.
Eric Rupnow (44:41):
Listeners share this with other folks.
Share this with yourmaintenance person, share this
with your boss.
I don't care, because this isthe kind of information that's
going to continue to change theindustry.
Brandon Mulnix (44:50):
When we work together as vendors and continue
to work as an industry, we'regoing to continue to grow and
we're going to continue to feedthe world.
Eric Rupnow (44:56):
So thank you listeners.
Brandon Mulnix (44:58):
Really appreciate.
You have a great day.
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I'm your host, Brandon Mulnix,and on today's episode I have
Eric Rupnow.
Eric is going to be speakingwith us from J&D Fans today and
he is passionate aboutventilation.
Passionate about ventilation.
Eric has been a big fan of theshow and we've had lots of good
(00:47):
conversations, whether at thedifferent IPPE or Peak or those
things.
And, man, when I could see hispassion for ventilation and the
fact that we've also gotten achance to work together on a
couple of projects, I had toshare Eric with you guys.
So welcome to the show, Eric.
Eric Rupnow (01:01):
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
It's always good to talk likeagriculture and if we can dive
into the ventilation piece,let's have some fun.
Brandon Mulnix (01:11):
Absolutely.
Eric.
Will you share a little bitabout who you are with the
listeners?
Eric Rupnow (01:15):
Okay, my name again , eric Rupnow.
I grew up north of Wausau,wisconsin, kind of right smack
in the center of the state.
My dad was a dairy kind ofright smack in the center of the
state.
My dad was a dairy veterinarianand we had grew up with sheep
and horses and involved in the4-H programs real heavy
livestock judging, showinglivestock, all that stuff you
know.
and kind of had that dream as akid.
(01:36):
You know that you're going toend up out west, you know, on
some big cattle ranch or feedlotor something like that.
So I ended up taking my collegetime at North Dakota State
University and got that degreein animal and range science.
And when I was getting readyfor graduation I realized, guess
what, I don't want to make$15,000 a year and live in a
(01:57):
bunkhouse.
So, cause, I'm really not acowboy.
Brandon Mulnix (02:01):
No future on Yellowstone for you no
Yellowstone for me.
Eric Rupnow (02:05):
So I ended up entering the swine industry and
it's 1995 that industry wasgrowing and seeking and finding
people to be a part of thatintegration.
They also had it set up that itcreated some work-life balance
for people.
A lot of times agriculturedoesn't always create work-life
balance right.
So I had it set up that way,moved myself to Pipestone,
(02:28):
minnesota and started that.
So I worked in the swineindustry for most of my career,
whether it be in the sow andboar, stud stuff, weaned to
finish, kind of worked my waythrough all of that and ended up
going.
I got to find something alittle bit different and ended
up on the swine nutrition sideand that ended up being just a
(02:50):
lot of consulting, if that makessense, where you're just
helping people solve problemsand if you're there on their
lucky day maybe you pick up somebusiness.
Married 27 years, my wifeLarissa.
We met in Louisville, kentucky,at livestock judging, national
livestock judging contest.
We raised two boys again thesame way that we were raised
around showing livestock andthose things.
(03:11):
We still have a small flock ofewes and sell some sheep to kids
for their show projects andstuff like that.
Try to help them out.
One son ended up becoming adesign engineer and the other
one he's finishing up his senioryear in sports management and
played college football.
So that was quite theexperience for all of us A lot
of fun, a lot of fun.
Brandon Mulnix (03:32):
Where do you play?
Eric Rupnow (03:32):
football at Carroll University in Waukesha,
wisconsin.
It's a Division III schoolplaying the CCIW conference.
So if anybody who followsDivision III football knows that
North Central won the DivisionIII National Championship and
that's one of their schools fromtheir conference that we had a
hard time with just likeeverybody else.
But no, that's a greatexperience Again, a different
(03:56):
experience than I could everprovide a kid growing up because
of agriculture.
You know he found that again,had passion for it.
You know he's currently tryingto get himself a graduate
assistant program and get hisMBA and kind of move through
that, but he still credits beinga part of agriculture and
livestock as a big thing.
You know, today we live inNemaha, iowa and, as I was
(04:18):
telling you earlier, nemaha Iowais famous for the Farmall
Promenade and it was a group offarmers locally that basically
half of them dressed like women,half dressed like men.
The men were on, I believe theywere on H's or M's and women
were on C's and they squaredanced these things and it was
actually an amazing thing to seethe cool thing.
(04:40):
We talk about work ethic a lotin the ag industry or in any
industry.
Both my sons had theopportunity to work for one of
those guys and you know bailinghay on a rack and out in the sun
and you know helping tear downthis old building or whatever
the daily picking rocks, allthat stuff.
So they got a chance to havethat work and create that work
(05:00):
ethic and that's kind of thebeauty.
I think that's what fuels thepassion for agriculture and
myself and my wife, becausewe're you're part of it but we
don't own it like the typicalperson thinks of a farmer.
Right?
She spent 25 years teachingagriculture education, she's an
ffa advisor and now she worksfor collison embryo where they
do uh, basically reproductivetechnologies and cattle and
(05:24):
small ruminants.
So that's kind of how we landwhere we're at.
I wish somebody had told mewhen I was 21 years old what the
poultry industry was, becauseit's a pretty amazing thing.
That's a story that reallyneeds to be told to people where
that chicken and egg comes from, because there's a lot of
opportunity out there for people.
I mean it's pretty impressive.
Because there's a lot ofopportunity out there for people
(05:46):
, I mean it's pretty impressive.
That's one thing I like goingto IPPE just because I see how
big that industry is and howmuch it comes together.
I don't think any industrycomes together from the
processing and productiontogether like they do in the
poultry industry.
It's impressive.
Brandon Mulnix (06:01):
It is definitely a different scale than the pork
industry.
I've been to the world porkcongress there in iowa and it's
hands down, you know, quite abit smaller, quite a bit more
confined compared to ipp whereyou've got man, one of the
biggest convention halls in theus, full of poultry equipment
providers and technicians, plusanother room off to the side.
(06:23):
Even that's got all the feedagitatives and a room I've never
even been in.
It's crazy down there.
Eric Rupnow (06:29):
I made a point last year to go walk through there,
and you know then I'm talking toa lot of people that I'd worked
with in the past from the swineside of things, you know, and
you do see a lot of crossover.
You know JD manufacturing.
It was started, as some's beenin pipes on race cars and
decided, hey, we're going tomake freestalls for dairy barns.
(06:49):
And then Don Radsky, who's thefounder owner of the company,
was kind of an engineering geekjunkie whatever you want to call
term you want to use there.
He started diving into thisventilation sphere term you want
to use there.
He started diving into thisventilation sphere and that has
been a focus for probably halfof the country's 40, whatever 43
(07:11):
years of existence and that'skind of what drew me to it.
You know I went to the iowaport congress and was visiting
with kirk brinks, who was the vpof sales and marketing, and
we're standing next to this fanthat was released there and that
year at IPPE in 2020.
Brandon Mulnix (07:30):
Yeah, it had been January of 2020.
Eric Rupnow (07:33):
And I'm standing there looking at this fan and
I'm like he's like what do youthink?
I said this is the greatestthing ever.
So I'm looking at a 58 inch fan.
It has no belts and pulleys andnothing to break, or you know,
just if everything's working.
It should be a maintenance freething, right?
It should be something that putin a wall.
It's going to work.
The design of it, everythingabout it.
(07:54):
It was a breakdown fan.
So you talk about just buyingfans.
We tell people we're sellingyou cfm, right?
and we can sell you a 70-inchfan and I get 17 of them on a
truck.
Or I can sell you this 58-inchfan that does the same CFM and I
get 75 of them on a truck.
Yeah, you got to put themtogether, but we're shipping 300
(08:15):
of them to California.
Guess what it's going to payfor itself.
So kind of that innovativething is what brought me to J&D.
I always, kind of, through allof that swine, saw so many
failures, mistakes in design ofbarns and then in execution, of
how poor ventilation caused moreproblems in terms of health and
(08:37):
disease and just growth andjust deficiencies.
I mean there's so many things.
I mean there's a lot of otherthings that go into it.
But ventilation failures ormishaps or whatever you want to
call, they can really ruin agroup of hogs, and I think it's
the same in anything else.
We dive into the dairy too.
A lot of people think, oh,dairy calf, keep it warm.
Yeah, but warm and wet's notgood for lungs, it doesn't
(09:01):
matter.
So it's in anything.
We've got a providing a greatenvironment, 70 degree day, you
know, in a nice little treegrove.
It's perfect for everybody andevery species of livestock too.
How do we create that in masspopulation facilities.
And that's the challenge, andthat's the opportunity, and
(09:22):
that's what kind of keeps megoing through this thing.
Brandon Mulnix (09:25):
Well, J&D, what is a big problem that they've
solved in the industry?
Eric Rupnow (09:31):
In the poultry industry.
I think the big problem thatwas solved was putting together
a light trap combination systemfor a cage-free house that kept
everything flush to the inside.
There wasn't anything stickingout.
And then it was tested.
You know, it was tested pullingthat air through that light
(09:52):
trap and making sure that thestatic pressure in between the
light trap and the fan is whereit's supposed to be and then
making sure the size matcheswe're not overworking the motors
or overamping the motors andthings like that.
So that made a big thing.
One thing that I see that JND isdoing the past two years and
(10:13):
then moving forward is okay,there's so many pieces to
putting together a ventilationsystem, right, you've got, you
know, inlets and actuators andall of these different things
stir fans and all of that.
You can go and try to createyour own, say, sidewall in it or
tunnel inlet, right, and that'sa tough thing to create.
(10:35):
So what we've done is gone tomore partnering with other
companies to say, okay, the TPIinlets, I look at those as the
best in the world.
I haven't seen or foundanything that was better.
They're continuing to innovate.
They kind of have the samemindset as J&D does in moving
forward and they've done somethings.
(10:57):
Their TPI area and inlet kindof just a masterful piece of
engineering just to be able toincrease that air speed coming
out.
Get a further throw than 10 feet.
We can throw that air 30 feetinto the house.
Well, we've got a lot morestratification of that air.
Then that air is warmer.
You know we're talking aboutcold weather ventilation.
That's kind of a key and inthat that throws like that on
(11:20):
minimum ventilation.
Maybe we don't need that stirfan right away on that second
set of nests, maybe we can moveit in a little bit.
Just gives us moreopportunities.
We've kind of gone that way.
We're going to stick on makingthe best fans we can make with
the best efficiencies and thehighest outputs and the least
(11:40):
amount of maintenance.
We focus on that.
Partner with people who aredoing the best on a singular
thing.
Then we can provide kind ofthat ventilation package.
Brandon Mulnix (11:52):
Yeah, you've been around the block when it
comes to these projects andusually when you and I get
together we're able to kind oftalk through some of the
industry challenges.
If you can talk directly to afarmer and what's the value of
ventilation and why it's soimportant, this is your
opportunity, because thelistener group may not be from
necessarily farming, but theyalso they're all over the
(12:13):
industry and can look and seewhat ventilation is.
So do me a favor explain thevalue of good ventilation in a
house and some of the aspectsthat we may not know about.
Eric Rupnow (12:22):
Well, I mean first and foremost it's animal
well-being, right.
It is providing an environmentwhere those animals can thrive.
They need all the things thatwe as human needs they need.
You know, they need to becooled down, they need to be
warmed up.
We all do better when the airis a little drier, a little less
humid.
If we've got too much humid, weall get a little hot.
(12:44):
If it's 85 degrees outside andthe humidity is 90%, guess what
it's going to feel like it's 110.
Just all of those things.
But when we talk to people and Ican bring up just a simple,
simple little deal that weworked on here a couple of
months ago with a beef cattlefarmer, right, and he's got this
small building that he dropscalves in and that's kind of
(13:07):
kept a little warm, but thenonce they're out of there a day
or two and then they move on outinto maybe a three-sided shed
or even just a windbreak,because once that calf is up and
going it can handle some ofthat weather.
Well, he decided he wasn'tgoing to go with our design, he
just wanted something tode-stratify some air.
Decided he wasn't going to gowith our design, he just wanted
something to de-stratify someair.
I'm like, okay, that's fine.
Got the call back I guess I wasat IBBE and he says this
(13:29):
doesn't work.
I said what do you want to do?
You want to do the design thatwe did, where we were pulling
air in and we were forcing thede-stratification with this
de-stratification fan and thenwe were exhausting air and
getting a 15 minute air exchangerate because we've got to get
that moisture down.
Basically, he's bringing incalves and it's cold and wet in
there and he can't get calvesdry.
(13:51):
He's getting, you know, lungissues, pneumonias and things
like this popping up real quickand he's like I got to change my
way.
So I think just providing anenvironment for your animals to
thrive, whatever species theyare, that's kind of the.
That's kind of the.
That's the key.
That's the key.
I mean, if you're going to gocheap on ventilation, I say good
luck I've been in buildingswith high ammonia levels that
(14:12):
are just absolutely.
Brandon Mulnix (14:14):
There's a reason for that.
You talked about turnover airturnover.
I mean all those animals arebreathing.
They're breathing in oxygen,letting out co2.
That air's got to turn over.
Eric Rupnow (14:22):
If it's not, it gets stale if it's a broiler,
that broiler's putting out BTUslike crazy, you know.
If it's a dairy cow, I mean youjust think BTUs coming off of
that cow that's eating that muchforage and she, just she
basically has this hugefermentation vat that's putting
off heat.
But we've got to displace thatsomewhere.
We've got to make thesebuildings work right.
(14:43):
A little pull.
It's a whole lot different thana turkey.
A turkey is different than apig.
You know, as you move throughthis, what their temperature
regulation is is different inall species.
But I think, when you get rightdown to it, it is about
providing that nice, dryenvironment prevents disease,
prevents animals from crowdingright.
(15:03):
So if we create a hot spotinside of the center of a barn
and whatever animal it is wantsto get away from there, they're
getting away from there, butthen they're crowding and
they're creating more heat.
And I mean you need a placewhere everybody wants to lay out
and it's like the beach, youknow, everybody wants to lay out
, get a little sun, you know,and just make it a nice,
(15:25):
beautiful environment.
When we take disease out ofthis program and we everything's
healthy and the nutrition'sright, we're going to create
products right At a really highrate.
Every employee that's workingwith their boots in the barn
every day.
They want that.
They want their life easy.
They don't want to be treatinganimals.
(15:45):
They don't want to be sortingoff stuff.
They don't want to be pullingdeads.
They don't want any of that.
If they can walk through a barnand go, everything looks good
and walk out, that's the easiestpart of their day.
Brandon Mulnix (15:55):
Well and it's easier for them too, in just
their environment.
I mean, if it's a healthyenvironment for the birds, it's
going to be healthy for thestaff, and in a day where
staffing is tough, that's theirwork environment.
You know, my office is at 70degrees all day long.
They should be able to have 70degree all day long as well,
even when it's a hundred degreesoutside, and it's possible with
ventilation.
Eric Rupnow (16:17):
It is.
It is, it is possible andthat's the beauty of it.
It's just GND I talked about alittle bit about can we take
maintenance?
away right that they don't haveto check this stuff, and I think
that's the goal.
I don't think we're there yet100, but that's the goal.
Any issues that we've had werewe.
We work to make them to get tothat goal.
I mean that's the whole, wholepoint of it.
(16:38):
You know we get that goal thatwe put, I think, when I started
the first case.
So what are you selling me?
I said I hope to sell you somefans and I hope that you don't
talk to me again until you needto buy some more for a new
project.
Right, I mean that's kind ofthe goal.
Same with you.
We can set up a control systemfor somebody and it just works
(16:58):
and it does what it's supposedto do.
And you call me for some minortweaks here and there, but the
most part it's just you're rockand roll.
Brandon Mulnix (17:06):
I mean that's, that's always the goal that is
prism's goal, by the way, is tomake your stuff sing and not
have to have people call you atall and to make sure that 70
degrees, based on the animalmovement and everything else,
that works together.
And amazes me as thesebuildings continue to evolve and
new designs come out anddifferent environments,
different locations, whetherit's the dry deserts of Arizona
(17:28):
versus the humid Midwest, oreven humid or Southeast.
It's crazy because there'sdifferent things that have to
happen.
Now I'm going to changesubjects here and I'm going to
have you talk direct to thatfarmer who's getting ready to
build his building.
What would you say to him orher?
Eric Rupnow (17:44):
In today's world.
First off, what are we growinghere?
What are we putting in thatbuilding?
I mean, that's where it starts.
And then what his vision for itis too a little bit.
I know we worked on someprojects together where the
vision was brought to us right.
It's my job to execute thatvision.
Well, that doesn't alwayshappen.
Sometimes there's a guy whocomes I'm putting hey, what are
(18:10):
your thoughts here?
I can put together the numbersfor you.
I can do this, and one of thebiggest things that I try to do
when we can is to not only showthem how maybe the calculations
work together to make this rightflow simulation so they can see
(18:38):
what this building is going tolook like.
One of the really hard thingsto do in a flow simulation is
mild, cold weather ventilationthrough a cage type house.
It's very, very difficultbecause you've got so much going
on.
So we kind of trust that coldweather math and then we work
towards that warm weather, sayat a pullet house.
What drives the agricultureindustry is what does the
(18:59):
consumer want too?
So we're putting in yourselfinto a position where you can
meet a niche.
Sometimes you know where thecaged free thing is big right, I
mean it just it is, and it'sdriven by the consumer.
How can we put yourself in aposition where that barn can be
cage free and then if oh hey,guess what those don't have any
value to us, now we can put 15,20 more birds in this house and
(19:23):
make it into a standard deal too.
I think there's a lot of thatstuff that's got to be taken
into consideration.
One of the things that's beenpretty big right now obviously
every poultry farmer and dairyfarmer now deals with the high
path avian influenza.
We've got some customers thatare talking about filtering
barns, doing positive pressurefilter.
(19:44):
Sometimes those are remodels.
That creates huge challengesbecause you've got to be
completely sealed up, you know.
So this isn't just we're goingto put some fans in the wall and
slap.
So this isn't just we're goingto put some fans in the wall and
slap some filters in there andit's going to make a difference.
No, we have to make sure thatthis is really, really, really
done right so that we controlevery bit of air that goes into
and out of that building.
(20:06):
The other thing that we kind ofdrive is fan efficiencies.
As we talk about this, I askthe question a lot of times,
especially in a bigger project.
What are you paying for yourelectricity?
Is it four and a half cents oris it 15 and a half cents?
Where do you live is going todrive what type of fan you might
(20:31):
buy, just because of capitalcosts, of a high efficiency fan
or an ECM or electronicallycommutated fan, which basically
is taking your power from AC,converting it to DC power and
then we can control how manyRPMs that fan runs, and the
slower the RPMs, the higher CFMper watt becomes, depending on
the size of the facility.
I mean, I've got a farmer in theSouthwest that, running his
fans the way he does, he figureshe saves himself $20,000 a
(20:54):
month.
How is that not a return?
And when we did the math on it,he bought 45 more fans than he
needed, but he says they paidfor themselves in six months.
And I think that's some of thevalue when we look at things is
how can we make your barn moreefficient?
Talked about things being ratedto power wash or dry wash.
(21:14):
How easy is it to access whatyou need?
We talked about that light trapcombination system as kind of
being something that's fairlyinnovative.
You know it's built to be ableto just open doors, like on a
closet, instead of taking outstuff and setting it over here.
It's all hinged up and then youlock it up.
I'm trying to make things userfriendly and make things work
(21:36):
together and I think that's a,that's a product that came from
working with an industry partnerwho wanted to solve a problem.
Those are things that we that Ireally like doing.
I like finding that, but whenyou talk about that farmer, it's
really about getting to see andunderstand how air flows.
I think that's the biggestpiece.
And it's the hardest thing tokind of see.
(21:57):
It's easy to see once you'vegot it done and you put some
smoke behind it.
Oh yeah, we can see how the airflows.
We've talked a little bit inthe past about tunnel
ventilating a pullet house or alayer house that has cages in it
.
You see a lot of times wherethey look at what is the size of
that inlet door or how manybirds are in there and they do
it off CFM per bird.
(22:19):
And you really have to look atwhat you're putting in for fans
is basically the dimensions ofyour walkways in between the
cages, because that's where theair is going to flow.
Everything else is a brick andit doesn't really flow through
the cages.
It doesn't flow the way maybewe think it should.
Water and air the same.
They find the path of leastresistance and they take it.
(22:41):
We see that a lot dairy barnstoo, where by the time you get
into them the air is up abovethem and it's not doing you
having any value to cooling yourlivestock.
So it's really about justunderstanding and being able to
see how air does move and flow.
Brandon Mulnix (22:58):
One thing that might come off a little
controversial, my thought is, ischallenging old time farming a
little bit.
Even if you think you knowexactly what is the right thing
to do, it's okay to challengewhat you know by getting other
people's opinions and pokingholes in it.
One of the common projects weworked on.
The veterinarian that was incharge of it basically said
(23:19):
here's my concept.
Guys, tear it apart.
And he didn't stop.
I mean, he continually evolvedthat concept and continually to
made modifications, because itrealized that with cage-free
it's a different process,there's different challenges.
The height of the room bringsin its own challenges.
You think, oh my gosh, thishouse over here has an
(23:41):
additional three feet.
That should be perfect.
No, the air went there and itwasn't circulating the rest of
the barn.
And you're like well, thatdoesn't make any sense.
Well, no, it does.
You just said it.
Path of least resistance.
I mean, how have you recentlychallenged somebody that thought
they knew exactly what theywere doing and you were able to
go in and basically change theirmind?
Eric Rupnow (24:01):
you know, bring me the cadillac, you know, make
this barn a cadillac, right.
And after we were sitting downfor a while I said I'm sitting
here talking to you guys andtalking to you about this stuff
(24:23):
and you look confused and theman in charge says you know,
we've been sitting here doingthis forever tunnel ventilating
these barns down here in thesoutheast, and you just told us
we've been doing it wrong.
And he said the first personthat I've ever listened to that
made sense and it was on thatthought process and where is
your pinch point for air?
So basically they've beenoverworking fans.
(24:45):
They said that theirmaintenance on their old belt
drive stuff was just insane,like three times a year changing
stuff out.
I said that makes sense.
Basically, have anunderstanding of where your
pinch point is.
That's the most amount of airthat you can pull through.
Whatever cubic feet you've got,square footage you have in that
opening, that is the maximumamount of CFM you can put on
(25:06):
that wall, exhausting it out.
And once they kind ofunderstood that, they're like
okay, let's rock and roll.
I can tell you what, taking youover to something a little bit
different a dairy calf bornventilation.
Everybody kind of has a concernabout keeping calves warm.
So they do some positivepressure stuff with tubes and
they do work well and they kindof move stuff throughout the
(25:28):
house, but you're not gettingmuch cooling out of that.
Again, the same thing where welooked at that project and said
break this apart.
I had somebody on the end of itcome to me and say how do I do
this?
And we went and broke it downand we ended up tunnel
ventilating dairy calves.
And I got up there and I metwith this gal who's running this
farm and there's like 30 ofthese little barns there and
(25:50):
they're like 26 feet wide and162 feet long.
I'm like how is this going?
She goes well, this is thefirst barn, this is the first
group that we put in here andwe're getting ready to move them
out today.
And she says I haven't treateda calf yet.
I said how's that compared towhat you used to do?
She goes we used to treatcalves every day.
They allowed me to work withthem to challenge how they've
(26:11):
done things.
And when we got done and put ittogether, they're like yes,
let's roll the way we went andsuccess.
The person running it isn'tgoing to be mad because they're
okay with not treating.
Now they get to really do agood job of their care and daily
tasks.
And then they again with highefficiency, low maintenance
(26:33):
motors.
They don't have to worry aboutany maintenance and messing
around with things.
So there's always a way tochallenge the old school way.
I remember talking about thatproject that we worked on, you
know.
I remember going to anotherfarm where we worked on
expanding that facility too, andI remember the veterinarian
(26:54):
being in the barn with you know,one of the workers and telling
him kind of what was going tohappen.
And he says you're going tohate it, right, you're not going
to like this.
It's going to be harder thanwhat you're doing now.
And I think in talking withpeople now, as opposed to three
years ago now, that they've kindof figured it out.
It's not that hard.
Once you kind of say, hey, wecan do this, and everybody buys
(27:19):
in and says let's rock and roll,I think they figure it out.
It's not that hard.
I think Iowa State Universityswine people talk about
ventilation as their unpaidemployee and I think that's a
real important way to kind offeel that out.
I mean, I like that term.
It's my unpaid employee, it canmake me money if I take care of
(27:43):
it and utilize it properly.
Brandon Mulnix (27:45):
Well, it's interesting because one of the
challenges that we found is thedesigners aren't the ones in the
barn sometimes how theytranslate that information and
that learning down to their farmstaff to operate it in the way
that it was designed.
Because if you take some of thebest chicken houses and you
(28:06):
don't operate them as designed,or you decide to maybe not seal
them up as well, and now the airis uncontrollable in those
spaces, they can be a nightmare.
Eric Rupnow (28:17):
You're so right.
And it doesn't matter whatspecies of animal it is, if it's
designed right, you know,making sure it gets trained not
only just trained on how to setit up and run it and those kinds
of things, but training on howto, you know, troubleshoot it
and make sure that the thingsare the way they're supposed to
be.
Ok, let's just set this thingup and let's measure our
(28:39):
airspeed.
You know, coming out of aninlet, let's measure our
airspeed as we kind of exit thebarn.
You know we can do some thingsa whole lot easier without
animals in there, just to makesure that they're working right.
You know, when you talk aboutcommissioning a brand new barn,
I've always encouraged people tolet's think about kind of
recommissioning it in a simplerway in between our groups, just
(29:02):
to make sure it's still doingwhat it's supposed to do and
maybe an actuator didn't slip alittle bit and those inlets are
open a half an inch more thanthey're supposed to be or
whatever that situation is, andwe can reset it and get it right
.
Yeah, it's always aboutexecution on the farm.
You know, sometimes there'semployees that they have the
right mindset to them.
You can say, okay, on this farmyou're our ventilation guy to
(29:22):
make sure that these things getkind of recommissioned and that
they make sure that they areeverything's acting the way it's
supposed to and performing theway it's supposed to.
Or if we see birds in a housethat all want to congregate in
one spot, there's a reason forthat.
Let's figure it out and let'sfix it.
Brandon Mulnix (29:38):
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of
opportunities as we talk aboutminimum ventilation and we talk
about heat With the new designsin cage-free, as these birds
want to get comfortable, heat'simportant.
When you incentivize a staffmember, maybe to say, hey, you
need to keep your heat bill down, then there's this balance of
do I do the right thing and putheat in the barn?
Heat's important.
Eric Rupnow (29:59):
Outside heat, dry heat.
Dry heat is important and it'svery important to make sure that
you get it in, you get itstratified to get it mixed.
You see this in this wineindustry too, where propane's
expensive.
I mean, and we all get it,propane is expensive.
So we need to make sure thatour minimum ventilation is
(30:20):
dialed in as best as you can getit dialed in for that winter.
But you're still pulling in air.
That's today in Iowa that's 15degrees, right?
So how do you get that airtempered as quickly as you can
before it kind of lands on yourflock, right?
So we talk about speed of thatair coming in through that inlet
(30:41):
.
Can we get it to throw 20, 30feet?
It's throwing in there, it'smixing with that air, that, it's
tempering that air.
And now we've got a nice warmenvironment.
We talk about circulation fans.
Circulation fans are thegreatest thing we've got in
terms of wintertime.
You know we can't have a heaterevery 10 feet, right?
(31:01):
You know we've got four or fiveheaters inside of this huge 70
by 500 foot room.
That's enough BTUs to warm thisfarm up in relation to those
birds.
How do we move that heat aroundso that heat is in every corner
of the building where thosebirds are utilizing that space,
eliminating cold spots and hotspots both the same.
(31:25):
Most of the time when people tryto eliminate or reduce the
amount of heat without dialingin their ventilation, you're
probably going to cause healthissues.
Just because it's the easiestthing to do, we're going to back
the fans up.
Well, now we've slowed the airspeed through there, so the
(31:46):
birds closest to the intake wallare probably a little cold, and
now the birds on the other sideare kind of wet and warm and
they're not very happy either.
It is about air exchange rateand making sure that you're
exchanging that air in that roomfour times an hour.
Now things are a little bitdifferent when we start talking
about bullets and things likethat, where you've got a very
(32:07):
small bird in a very big space,finding your ways to manipulate
your way through that throughsome purging of air and things
like that.
We're going to pull a lot for ashort period of time and allow
that stuff to kind of temper inthere a little bit better.
So there's a lot of ways to doit.
Burning propane creates somereally good growing livestock if
(32:28):
we do it in the right andefficient fashion.
Brandon Mulnix (32:31):
So what's the future of ventilation?
Look like fashion.
So what's the?
Eric Rupnow (32:35):
future of ventilation look like.
Future of ventilation, I trulybelieve, is being able to dial
in and know exactly what youroutput of that fan is.
Coming from the swine industry,minimum ventilation was about a
pit fan, right?
So you're pulling air inthrough the attic, you're
tempering it through a ceilinginlet.
Air in through the attic,you're tempering it through a
(32:56):
ceiling inlet and drawing itdown across the pigs and out the
side.
They're going to run that fanby changing the amount of
electricity that's going to it,right, the voltage going to it,
to slow that fan down.
Well, even in fans that we havelike that, nobody's got a test
to tell you how many CFM it'sdoing and most people just
assume that it's a linear thing.
So if at 2000 CFM, at 50% it'sdoing a thousand, no, it's
(33:19):
probably doing about 600.
So I think that's a big pieceis just being able to dial
everything in that way.
I also think that this filterthing, especially on the pulling
houses, might have a pretty bigfuture, but again it comes down
to how everything is executed.
Have a pretty big future, butagain it comes down to how
everything is executed.
(33:40):
The challenge is we talk aboutpreventing disease, airborne
disease.
We still have to rely on all ofour other biosecurity practices
to make sure that we don'tcarry those diseases in with us.
Whether it's keeping out otherbirds, it's our biosecurity
systems.
And changing clothes, shower in, shower out all the products
that we bring into thesebuildings, making sure that
(34:00):
those are decontaminated,because basically we're talking
about diseases.
They're airborne.
It means that they'reeverywhere, right, so we can
conceal as barn up and do itright, and I think that has some
value.
But again we have to haveeverything else in place too.
I think positive pressure thingsas we look at poultry, I think
can have some value.
But again we have to haveeverything else in place too.
I think positive pressurethings as we look at poultry, I
think can have some value.
(34:21):
It's not used very commonly andit does have its challenges.
But I think the beauty of it aswe talked earlier about these
birds over here, they'recrowding together for a reason
or whatever that we have kind ofthese hot spots and cold spots
in a barn and if we do thatpositive pressure correctly, I
talk about it like blowing up aballoon with a small hole in it,
(34:43):
right, so we can kind of keepthat balloon full and what that
means is we're filling up theballoon.
The building, the airspace isthe balloon.
If we fill that up, we knowthat the air is hitting every
corner of that building, so theair should be similar in terms
of its quality, speed,everything throughout that
(35:05):
facility.
It'd be a challenge.
I'd love to take on thatchallenge.
I'd love to have one of theseguys come and say Eric, let's
work on a positive pressure barn, doesn't have to be filtered or
anything like that, just apositive pressure barn.
I would be all in on it, Iimagine, you would.
I just think it's.
I've talked to some very largeswine integrators that built
(35:28):
some buildings that have someventilation problems.
I've been in them and you know,talked about them and things
like that.
And I talked with them at theIowa Pork Deal again.
I said, you know, finisherwhatever they were 249 and 251,
whatever these finishers were Isaid I'd love to do this with
you.
Just let me know.
Just let me know, because Ithink we can make you know, I
(35:54):
think we can make those pigsgrow exponentially faster than
they are in certain parts ofthose buildings because they
create dead spots.
Brandon Mulnix (35:59):
Well, what's unique about you, eric, is
you've got experience fromacross different species, and I
think sometimes you know wethink specialists in this
industry, the ones that are onlydoing you know eggs, or only
doing poultry.
I mean that's their specialty.
And what's nice is yourexperience from around the
industry.
It's all about animal health,it's all about the different
species, because I think thelessons you're learning in swine
(36:20):
and turkey and all these arereally paying off as wins in the
egg industry as well.
Eric Rupnow (36:25):
Yeah, and I think that's just an important piece
of what J&D is.
You know it was founded as adairy-centric deal and it's
still probably 50% of ourbusiness.
But I'm gonna tell you thatthis poultry and layer side of
it if it hasn't taken it over,it's getting pretty close.
Our name is getting out there.
This is bringing some value tothe industry.
(36:47):
We like the fact that we'rebuilding these things and
constructing them.
When Don decided to spend twoand a half million dollars to
put in an AM amp approved testchamber so that every fan that
we sell we know exactly how it'sgoing to perform, and then I go
out to the field and I'm likeit's performing a little too
well, we got to dial this back.
You know, and those are thethings that I really like and
(37:09):
being able to have thosecapabilities right inside the
door, right president's office.
She walks 30 steps and she canwalk into that test chamber and
talk to those guys and see howthings are going.
And it's really exciting to be apart of something that is
trying to push the envelope,trying to find the new things.
I worked with somebody in mypast who said you know, there's
(37:32):
one trend that never changes interms of going up.
You know, we talk about trends,whether it's stock market
trends or we talk about CMEtrends, things like that.
One trend doesn't change inthat the human population
continues to grow andagriculture's job is to grow
with it and, in the mostefficient way, be able to
provide them nutrition, not justfood.
(37:53):
We need nutrition.
So we need eggs and poultry andmilk and dairy and beef and we
need it all.
How does J&D find a role inmaking producer X get X amount
of eggs over his average in thatbuilding?
Or this dairy farmer?
You know the peak dairyproduction in terms of cows
(38:14):
milking is January, february.
We're sitting in it right now.
How do we extend that milkproduction, that peak milk
production, out into August orSeptember and not get those
drops in June?
You know how can we extend thatproduction out, help them
become more efficient?
In the poultry industry there'sa lot of people who want to be
on the smaller side of things.
How can we make them better atwhat they do and create more,
(38:39):
more product and moreprofitability.
And the same side, theintegrator side, the big
facilities, half million hens ina barn or 10, 12, 25, 000 cows
in a barn how do we make it sothat makes them more efficient
and makes that environment thatmuch better for them too?
It's everybody.
I've had people that take careof little goats and they have
(39:02):
400 dairy goats on feed and okay, let's go.
We've created ventilationsystems around the facilities
they've had and taking someaspects of poultry, some aspects
of swine, some aspects of dairyto bring all this stuff
together and you can create asystem for something that you've
never created before.
It's kind of fun.
Brandon Mulnix (39:21):
Well, Eric, I really do appreciate your time.
Is there anything else that youwant to share with the
listeners?
Eric Rupnow (39:27):
I always be looking and challenging yourselves in
everything that you do.
I think that's what you do atPRISM trying to find innovative
ways to provide solutions,sometimes in my office or in
your office.
If you don't know a problem,you can't come up with a
solution.
So I always feel free to reachout to help find solutions to
whatever problems that you'vegot.
(39:48):
And again, we're here to playour roles in providing nutrition
to our world.
Get right down to it.
That's what we do.
It's cool to watch and work withpeople who are innovative,
working with you guys and someof your smoke detection things.
I just think that's awesome.
I've taken it to a couple ofbig dairy farmers and said, hey,
(40:09):
what do you think they're like?
I don't know about that rightnow.
They're thinking about it.
We can put this in a lot ofdifferent places and make it
work.
Working with TPI and howthey're innovative in their
things.
We started working with anothercompany just on some lighting
stuff and how do we changelighting and how we do things in
(40:29):
the dairy.
Instead of just a straight LEDlight, can we do things
different?
Because we see what we're doingin the poultry industry, in the
layer industry and how we uselighting to create the optimal
condition for those birds to laythe most eggs.
How can we do that in the dairyindustry for those cows to
produce more milk?
I always try to be innovative.
I was asked in a stay interviewthe other day of our core values
(40:53):
which one do I align with?
Innovation is a number one, oneof the things that I bring up,
and I think it was like yourfirst podcast, maybe your second
one.
It was right after IPPE lastyear and you mentioned that you
know you'd like to see more ofthe people that work in the
barns every day getting anopportunity to go to those shows
again, and I've noticed thatacross the board, with the swine
(41:17):
and the dairy too, that it'snot necessarily the people that
are in the barn every day thatgo to those.
And I think having those peoplemaintenance, people, production
people be able to walk throughthose shows and visit with
people and see what's out thereand maybe learn something or
bring things to us as vendors, Ithink that's an ideal thing
(41:39):
that probably maybe needs tocome back to us a little bit.
It's always nice to talk tosomebody who's in the barn every
day and get their views andwhat they see.
Brandon Mulnix (41:49):
Well, I could say I couldn't say it better,
eric, but you did a good job ofquoting that from last year and
I'll reiterate that as we gointo show season is probably
some of the best innovationcomes from the guys that are in
the barns doing the job, and asthe decision makers get further
and further away from the barn,it's hard.
The good input comes from theguys doing it every day, from
(42:10):
the guys putting in the work.
In today's world, I mean, someof the best people in this
industry are the maintenanceguys that are solving problems
and they can tell you what'swrong with your equipment.
Eric Rupnow (42:19):
Yep, they do.
They do.
It's great.
I like it.
There are certain ones outthere that are great about it.
We've got this problem and it'sreoccurring.
All right, I'm going to lookinto it.
Look into it.
Yep, that is a problem.
We're going to get you fixedright.
If it's not a simple fix, it'sredesign right.
(42:39):
We've redesigned things severaltimes to make sure that they do
hold up, because that's a toughthing about being innovative so
you can work on something, youget it put together, it tests
great in a chamber and all ofthat On the farm is a different
story, and a fan that's 60 footoff the ground is a different
story than one that's 10 footoff the ground or three foot off
the ground.
So we have to learn thosethings and bring them back and
(43:00):
make them better.
But that's what we want is wewant those guys that are out
there, whether it's the in-sawcrew or whether it's the people
that are running the barn andtaking care of the birds.
We learn, we make it better andwe move forward, but, again,
staying innovative.
Brandon Mulnix (43:14):
Well, eric, with that, I'm going to pull us into
a close here, because I thinkyou and I could talk forever.
We usually do we usually do, andso thank you, thank you, j&d
fans, for providing Eric to theindustry and giving him an
opportunity to solve problemsacross species.
And, like I said, it's been mypleasure working with you on
different projects and I knowyou truly are making a
(43:35):
difference in this industry, sothank you for that.
Listeners, I can only challengeyou.
This is going to be coming outbefore peak.
Please visit us at peak.
I know J and D is going to beat peak.
Prism controls is going to beat peak.
Please stop and visit, ask yourquestions, send more people.
If you want to do somethingabout your career, don't wait
for your boss to send you to thepeak.
(43:55):
And want to do something aboutyour career, don't wait for your
boss to send you to the peak.
And what I mean by peak isMinneapolis.
It used to be called theMidwest show.
Don't wait for your boss If youwant to do something right for
your own career.
Go and learn.
It's a great place to learn andI'm sure that you're going to
bring more innovation, moreideas back to the farm and in
the future, your leaders aregoing to be more than willing to
send you because there's lotsof conferences, there's lots of
(44:16):
tech talks, there's lots ofvendors.
Those are the places whereeverybody kind of lets their
guard down and you get to see alot of things.
So with peak coming up here ina few weeks when this thing airs
, please attend the show.
Stop by see Eric, stop by thefolks at Prism Controls, visit
with them.
I'm not going to be there thisyear, I'm going to be at a
different show.
Definitely, stop by and say hi.
(44:37):
So with that, I'm going toconsider that my plug for Prism
Controls, like I do.
Eric Rupnow (44:41):
Listeners share this with other folks.
Share this with yourmaintenance person, share this
with your boss.
I don't care, because this isthe kind of information that's
going to continue to change theindustry.
Brandon Mulnix (44:50):
When we work together as vendors and continue
to work as an industry, we'regoing to continue to grow and
we're going to continue to feedthe world.
Eric Rupnow (44:56):
So thank you listeners.
Brandon Mulnix (44:58):
Really appreciate.
You have a great day.
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