Pig Farm Management of Water (Part 1)

Water is an essential ingredient for pigs to maintain constant temperature, nutrient transfer, chemical reactions in the body, and to maintain acid-base balance in the body. It helps the feed move in the gastrointestinal tract and expels unwanted substances. 80% of the weight of the newborn piglets and 53% of the weight of the slaughter pigs are moisture. Most of the water needed by the pig comes from the water produced by the feed and its own metabolism, and most of it comes from its own drinking water. When a pig loses almost all of its body fat and more than 50% of its protein, it can still survive, and when it loses 10% of its water, life will stop.

When water is used, various digestive enzymes cannot function, oxygen cannot be dissolved, blood transport is slow, and many functions such as digestion and growth are severely affected. Lack of water will reduce the intake of food and reduce the growth rate. It will also cause some evils, such as the ear biting and tail biting. Severe dehydration can cause salt poisoning. Pigs exhibit convulsions, coma and even death. The lack of water in the sow to sow will affect the amount of milk produced, slow piglet growth, increase mortality, decrease the sow’s condition and increase the time from weaning to re-breeding.

The amount of water supplied and the quality of water are directly related to the pig's growth and production efficiency. However, due to the fact that water does not need to be purchased like other raw materials for pigs, there are very few people who are instructed and trained in this area. Although most people are aware of the importance of water in raising pigs, in production, many producers and even managers, some details of water management are often overlooked.

1. Frequently Asked Questions in Drinking Water Management

According to the “International Swine” magazine published in January 1999, Sweden’s survey of 40% of northern farms (more than 2,000 sows in stock) found that none of the water flow rate of suckling sow’s water nozzle can reach the required amount of water for sows. The request.

Dr. John Carr of the University of Iowa at the United States investigated 200 farms and found 68 problems. 47 species are common problems, 8 are uncommon, and 13 are rare. So far, it has not been found that there is no problem with the water supply system of a farm. Except for the eight pig farms where salt poisoning occurred, other pig farms did not realize that there was a problem with their water supply system. During the survey, 57 pig producers were asked, "What can be judged by the phenomenon of the water supply system?" The most common (32) answer to this question is "The pig stopped feeding." In fact, if this phenomenon is observed, it has been stopped for at least 24 hours.

French researchers found that sows with more than one-quarter of sows in slaughtered pigs had abnormal bladders. They believed that nearly two-thirds of the sows in severely infected farms died of bladder infections. Because in some countries in Europe, drinking water is restricted to pregnant sows in order to reduce the cost of manure disposal. As a result, the concentration of substances in urine is relatively high, and the arrival of mineral saturation point becomes faster, and it will appear in urine. precipitation. Due to the stimulation of the mucous layer of the bladder, urinary tract infections are easily caused, which is an important cause of the death of the sow.

In the investigation, Dr. John Carr also found that the angles of drinking fountains on many farms are not correct, which makes it difficult for pigs to drink water, and waste increases. Prolonged drinking time can also cause the water dispenser to wear out and shorten its service life. Drinking drinking fountains with poor angles for a long period of time, pigs will show facial deformation similar to the symptoms of atrophic rhinitis. In addition, the location of the drinker does not meet the distance of at least one pig body length between each drinker and obstacles or other drinkers. The other reason is that the flow rate of drinking water can not meet the needs of the performance of any pig (except lactating sows) to spend more than 10 minutes a day to drink water. It is also common in summer that some pigs will affect other pigs' drinking water. The dominating pigs rolled in front of the drinking fountains, affecting pigs of lower status in other groups. This problem is more likely to occur when the stocking density is too large.

There was also a drop of water seen by the production staff when they checked the drinking fountain. It was really disappointing to say that the drinking fountain was normal. In many farms (more than 20%), the sow's water supply security is not as good as the piglet, and the production staff still insists that the sow is not eating enough because of a certain disease, not because of lack of water. In responding to the failure of the water supply system, few farms will take active measures for cleaning, maintenance and repair, but only passively replace the failed drinking fountain.

Problems such as these have had to make a thorough and thorough consideration of the seriousness of the problems in the water supply system and a thorough and thorough inspection of the water supply system. Dr. John Carr also suggested that improving the water supply system does not guarantee that the herd will be healthy, but after improving the water supply system, the health status of pigs in many pig farms has improved, and the clinical incidence has dropped. Of particular note is the fact that 20 pig farms were plagued by chronic pyelonephritis, and after the improvement of water supply, the disease disappeared.

2, the study of the amount of water

The amount of water consumed by a pig is related to the pig's age, production level, outside temperature, water temperature, water supply method, feed type, feeding method, and swine activity.