Articles - Facilities and equipment

Lifting partitions in the farrowing unit allows piglets from different litters to mix, sharing teats and socializing.

Joan Wennberg discusses the ideal farrowing facilities with Heraclio Corchón and Javier Lorente. They do not always agree, which makes reading this document even more interesting.

Neonatal mortality does not only depend on the design of the farrowing crate, but also on genetic and management factors, as well as litter size, especially with the increased use of hyper-prolific dam lines.

To prevent tail biting, animals must be able to express their exploratory behaviour in an appropriate manner. This article presents the points to consider when choosing the most appropriate material.

Foaming in swine manure is not a recent issue. The unusual aspect of foaming manure today is the significant increase in foaming events.

Having a correct lighting is basic for the productivity of the sow and the farm workers, and it can be increased considerably with solutions apart from artificial lighting.

This article summarizes the main points to beat heat stress in pigs.

Understanding potential causes of lameness can help reduce the levels of lameness in the breeding herd and thus improve farm productivity and sow welfare.

The most direct strategy to decrease the concentration in the air of airborne pathogens is dust reduction. This article describes the use of a particle ionization system called EPI.

From 1977 through 2013 the dressed slaughter weight for barrows and gilts has increased an average of 0.6 kg (1.3 lb) per year.

Managing the pig’s environment with the goal of heat removal is an increasing need, especially when pens are more crowded.

This article suggests some solutions to the main problems encountered in pregnancies with group housing.

The two main factors that make that certain farms have not been successful adapting to the animal welfare regulations are design and handling/management.

Lameness is the second most common cause for the culling of sows.

This study demonstrates the added profitability that air filtration can give to sow farms located in highly dense swine regions. However, it is important to point out that these figures are long term averages and not necessarily predictors for individual herds.

Characteristics of the installations, genetics, medications, feeding, etc. of Spanish feedlots based on data of 452 farms that pertain to nine of the 25 biggest pig integration companies in the country.

This study, based on some 120,000 sows, quantifies the reduction of the risk of introducing PRRS viruses when using air filtering.

The thermographic cameras can measure the temperature in all the image with resolutions that are equivalent to 19,200 infrared thermometers at the same time.

In high-density swine regions of North America, air filtration is playing an important role in the effort to maintain PRRS free commercial sow herds

The Danish pig producers’ research organisation has tested a number of different designs. They recommend pen dimensions of 2.7x1.8 m to accommodate modern prolific breeds.

Trials have shown that a group size of 15-25 pigs per pen is ideal and it also coincides with the capacity of most feeders on the market.