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Goal
Improving the cooling in the farrowing rooms in summer.
Explanation
At the Cartellnou family farm, in the province of Lleida (Spain), a system for cooling the farrowing rooms easily was devised. In the farrowing rooms there was forced ventilation and just above the windows some water micro-sprinklers were installed in order to reduce the temperature in summer.
The farrowing rooms on this farm were small, and the new forced ventilation system worked well in general. With the high temperatures during the hottest summer months, it was seen that the forced ventilation worked continuously, and it did not lower the temperature in the farrowing rooms enough for the sows to feel comfortable. I order to avoid this, micro-sprinklers were installed just above the windows through which the air draught enters the farrowing rooms. When the micro-sprinklers are turned on, the water micro-drops that they produce enter the farrowing rooms at high speed with the help of the forced ventilation and they cool the environment.
A timer was also installed, and it turns the micro-sprinklers on during the hottest hours of the day. Using this simple system we have seen that the temperature in the farrowing rooms drops by 2-3ºC in a few minutes. Also, as the drops of water are very small and they are transported through the air at great speed, they do not make the environment excessively damp, as this would entail the proliferation of insects or the growth of bacteria.