“I was in the hog business for 25 years before launching USA Solutions,” remembers Darryl Metcalfe. “No matter how hard you tried you couldn’t get the rubber mats clean enough, and it caused health issues. I was working with the veterinarians one day, and they commented that the industry could really use a disposable mat to start with a fresh, clean one each time.
I just ran with the idea.”
Metcalfe and and his business partner Tony Schmitt designed a mat made from pressed corn stalks and wood products for use in farrowing barns, to replace the rubber mats, explains Metcalfe. “It’s designed to be broken into small pieces and fed back to gilts (female pigs prior to breeding and farrowing).”
The mats are made in Minnesota and Wisconsin and sold across the US and Canada. “Without AURI we probably would not exist,” says Metcalfe of AURI’s assistance.