Microenvironments in swine farrowing rooms: the thermal, lighting, and acoustic environments of sows and piglets

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The present research hypothesized that the thermal, lighting and acoustic environments in commercial swine farrowing rooms vary over time and from crate to crate. This study was conducted on 27 replicates in two commercial farrowing rooms in North Central Indiana, each equipped with 60 farrowing crates. Temperature, relative humidity, light intensity, sound intensity, and air velocity were continuously monitored and estimated for each crate at the sow level, for 48 h post-farrowing, which is usually a critical period for piglet survivability. Average daily temperature for all the crates in Room 1 was 24.1 ± 2.0 °C, 1.0 °C lower (p < 0.05) than in Room 2. Although the overall mean temperature was similar between rooms and seasons, frequency distribution diagrams revealed that the proportion of time spent within distinct limits of mean daily temperature ranged from 15.0 °C to 28.0 °C and varied substantially between rooms and seasons. Similar results were found for all variables measured in this study. Differences in temperature, relative humidity, light intensity, air velocity, and sound intensity in crates were as high as 9.6 °C, 57 %, 3,847.3 Lx, 0.87 m s −1 , and 38.7 dBC, respectively, in the same farrowing room when measured at the same instant. The results of the present research indicate that aspects that go beyond the physical environment of the sows, such as thermal, lighting, and acoustic environment can vary substantially over time and between crates of automatically climate controlled farrowing rooms. These differences should be taken into consideration in production setting and research.

Pilot-Scale Assessment of a Novel Farrowing Creep Area Supplementary Heat Source

“…Further, the PWM difference between SEHM and HL will vary across production systems as management also substantially contributes to this value. Large PWM variability is a known challenge in pig production [16], thereby creating some uncertainty in this estimated value.…”

Modeling and Assessing Heat Transfer of Piglet Microclimates

“…The swine industry uses several different supplemental heat sources including heat lamps (infrared bulb ranging from 125 to 250 W), heat mats (electric heaters encapsulated in plastic), semi-enclosed heated microclimates (parabolic shield with an infrared heat source for two creep areas), and brooders (totally enclosed area with a heat lamp) [1, [5][6][7]. This cost-effective approach (both capital cost and energy usage) is capable of meeting both the thermal needs of sows and piglets; however, the diversity in macro-and micro-climates results in variable thermal conditions for the piglets, which could result in reduced piglet growth and increased prewean mortality (PWM) rates [2,8]. The creation and control of the microclimate is an excellent use case for precision livestock farming technology (PLF) as a model-based control system can be developed and deployed [9].…”

Technology and assessment techniques for swine farrowing facility management

“…This estimate should be used with caution based on this sensitivity and that the PWM difference will be very variable. This variability in PWM is a known issue in pig production (Morello et al, 2018), making the uncertainty in the economic value based on this production improvement very high.…”