Part Two – Drip Cooling
Cooling grower and finisher sheds is fairly easy to get your head around. You install some sprayers, hook them up to a control system (such as our COOLGRO), and move on with your life. This works great with larger pigs in naturally ventilated sheds. The same easy system can be used for dry sows in pen situations.
The harder part of the equation is wherever young pigs are involved, especially in the farrowing house.
Lactating sows like low temperatures (ideally between 12 and 22 degrees Celsius), but piglets like temperatures of 26 – 32 degrees Celsius. Managing these two requirements in a shared environment isn’t hard, but just requires a little forward planning.
Drip Cooling
Drip cooling is a great solution to this problem. With the installation of a dripper line over the backs of your lactating sows you can easily keep their core temperature under control WITHOUT wetting the piglets. Drip cooling works best along the following lines:
- In conventional farrowing situations (eg. Farrowing house with Crates)
- A rate of 1 – 2 litres per hour through each dripper is ample to reduce the temperature of the sow.
- It works best when automated.
In order to prevent the loss of productivity (and possibly even loss of the sow herself) that can occur when temperatures rise, automation really is essential with dripper systems. You can’t guarantee that a farm hand is going to know when the temperature hits 23 degrees and, even if they do, they may still forget to turn on the drippers.
Controlling drip cooling is a simple task with the COOLGRO. It’s dead simple to install and use, inexpensive and is even made right here in Australia.
If you want your sows at peak performance through the summer, give us a call on (03) 5448 8942 and we’ll help you get sorted.