How to cool down pigs in hot weather?

There are many ways to cool down sows in farrowing rooms in summer in various places. The Animal Husbandry Hall has compiled 12 methods to see which method is suitable for your pig farm.

1. Dripping method; for pigs with fixed stalls, such as breeding pigs in positioning stalls and farrowing houses, install a faucet or dripping device above the pig's neck so that the water drops just fall on the pig's neck. On the neck, the cooling effect can be achieved by adjusting the speed of dripping water according to the degree of coolness or heat of the weather.

Generally speaking, the appropriate dripping speed is 30 to 60 drops/minute. It is to drop water onto the sow's head to evaporate and absorb the heat from the sow's head, thereby reducing the heat stress of the sow. However, this cooling method is not ideal in high-temperature weather above 35 degrees, and can easily cause moisture in the pig house.

However, when this method is used together with fan cooling, the effect will be good, because the fan can accelerate the evaporation of water, take away heat, and cool down the pigs.

2. Neck blowing and cooling; this method is to send the air from the blower to each head through a soft rubber tube 50 to 80 cm high and about 50 cm in diameter installed above the sow’s head and neck. The opening above the sow's head and neck is blown to the neck to achieve the purpose of cooling down and making the sow comfortable. In order to achieve better results, the air can also be cooled by a water curtain before blowing, and then blowing.

3. Fan cooling; Fan cooling is still the most commonly used method in small pig farms. However, there are misunderstandings in this method. People always think that the fan cooling effect is very good, as long as the wind is stronger, this is not the case;

Human sweat glands are very developed, and the wind is very cool when sweating, while pigs have very few sweat glands , the cooling effect of wind blowing is much worse than that of people; but when combined with the water spray method, coupled with wind blowing, the effect is just like people sweating, so the effect is good.

4. The water curtain is matched with a fan; for water curtain cooling, 2 to 3 exhaust fans are installed at one end of the pig house, a water curtain is installed at the other end, and the ceiling is installed on the entire roof. When using it, close the window or put down the roller shutter. The pig house is sealed, and the air is cooled by the cold water at the water curtain before entering the pig house. Then the water flows back to the storage tank and is continuously recycled, which can reduce the temperature inside the house by 5 to 8°C.

Use water curtains as little as possible in the farrowing room, because the water curtain cooling will increase the humidity in the house, which is detrimental to the piglets and can easily cause diarrhea in the suckling pigs.

5. Livestock and poultry air conditioners; the livestock and poultry air conditioners mentioned here also use the principle of water evaporation and cooling; however, the positive pressure air supply used in this kind of sky can make the air in closed or semi-closed pig houses The pressure is greater than the external pressure, preventing outside air from entering, making the cold wind more even in all parts of the pig house, and the effect is better than the water curtain;

However, the effect of livestock and poultry air conditioners is better in the first year, and will increase with each year. , the cooling effect becomes worse, mainly because the pig house is too dusty and needs to be cleaned regularly to ensure the cooling effect.

6. Spray cooling. For pig houses with dense pigs, such as fattening houses, empty breeding houses, pregnancy houses, etc., pig farms (households) in the south prefer to use spray water cooling in the house. According to the hot weather, spray water 2 to 3 times a day to reduce the temperature inside the pig house by maintaining the humidity of the pig house.

7. Roof spray water cooling for pig houses with tile roofs (cement tiles, asbestos tiles, ordinary mud tiles) or iron sheets, in