Swine Housing

1
Swine Housing

• The majority of pigs today are raised in total
  confinement

2
Confinement Production

• What are some of the advantages and disadvantages
  of raising swine in confinement?

3
Advantages

• Less labor per cwt of pork produced
• A more stable environment
• Fewer parasites
• Less disease problems
• Increased productivity

4
Disadvantages

• Buildings and equipment are very expensive
• Energy costs
• Reproductive problems
• Waste disposal

5
Waste Handling

• Manure disposal is a critical part of raising
  pigs in total confinement (3-4 T/200 lb hog/yr.
• Typical methods of handling waste in confinement
  buildings include
• Gutter flush to a lagoon
• Manure pit
• Mechanical scraper

6
Floors in Swine Buildings

• Solid concrete
• Partially slotted
• Total slotted
• Expanded metal
• Plastic coated expanded metal
• Plastic

7
Farrowing Facilities

• In the past individual farrowing houses were
  quite common when sows and pigs were raised on
  pasture
• Today most farrowing houses are central in
  design.
• Central farrowing houses consist of one or more
  rooms that accommodate groups of sows

8
Farrowing House Continued

• Most producers use farrowing crates
• Years ago the majority of sows were kept in
  individual pens prior to and after farrowing
• Crates are preferred today because they result in
  more pigs weaned per litter

9
Nursery Facilities

• Nursery barns often contain several rooms with
  each room designed to accommodate the number of
  pigs from an individual farrowing room
• Small pens designed to handle 6 to 8 pigs are
  very common although some pens may be large
  enough to handle 16 to 25 pigs

10
Nursery Building Continued

• The facilities are designed to provide a fairly
  stable environment
• These facilities may be designed to accommodate 3
  week old pigs or perhaps 10 d old pigs
• Supplemental heat is provided via heat lamps,
  radiant heaters or perhaps heat in the floor

11
Grow-Finish Facilities

• Environmentally enclosed (totally enclosed)
  buildings are the most popular today
• Open-front buildings popular in the 60s
• Modified open front (MOF) buildings were popular
  in the 80s
• Hoop buildings are the most recent
• Space requirements of 8-10 sq.ft./hd for G-F

12
Waterers

• Nipple waterers are very popular in confinement
• Water cups are also popular
• Some buildings (particularly gestation buildings)
  may use a concrete feed trough as a place to
  provide water after feeding
• Rule-of-thumb provide one waterer/15 pigs

13
Feeding Equipment

• Self feeders are generally used for nursery and
  grow-finish pigs
• Breeding stock are generally limit fed via floor
  feeding or in self feeders
• Pigs per feeder space range from 2 for nursery
  pigs to 4-5 for finishing pigs.

14
Terms you should know

• Segregated early weaning (SEW)
• Split-sex feeding
• Phase feeding
• Multiple-site systems
• All-in-all-out (AIAO)

15
Terms defined

• SEW refers to weaning the pigs at 10-14 days of
  age when they are still protected from diseases
  via passive immunity from the mothers milk.
  These pigs are removed from the sow and placed in
  a separate building.

16
Terms continued

• Split-sex feeding refers to feeding gilts and
  barrows separate since gilts are normally leaner
  than barrows and as a result have a higher
  protein requirement.
• Phase Feeding refers to frequent changes in the
  diet to more closely meet the specific nutrient
  requirements for various weight groups.

17
Terms continued

• Multiple-site systems generally refers to
  having a different location for
  breeding-gestation-farrowing versus nursery
  versus grower-finishing.
• AIAO refers to a management system where all
  animals from a particular building or room are
  moved in and out on the same day.