Water way to boost production of piglets (From Hereford Times)

Water way to boost production of piglets

8:00am Saturday 20th March 2010 in

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A SIMPLE change to the watering system in pig farrowing houses is said to have allowed a farmer to rear one to 1.5 extra piglets a litter.

He installed Aqualevel valves with diaphragms in the pens, which created a vacuum and maintained the water in troughs at a pre-set level.

Previously, farmer Anthony Hitchcock found lactating sows had difficulty drinking or were too lazy to operate the dribble drinkers to get enough water into their troughs, resulting in problems like sows quarters drying up and sows not clearing up their food.

Water meters fitted by equipment company G E Baker of Bury St Edmunds showed sows were drinking just nine litres under the old system but an average 24 on the new one. And on the first few days after farrowing, they averaged 40 litres a day.

Mr Hitchcock said as a result litters were heavier, more even and he was rearing more of them.

He put it down to sows drinking more water, eating extra food and producing more milk.

As a bonus, by drinking more the sows produced more urine, making slurry a lot easier to handle and pits less tedious to clean out.