HOUSING OF PIGS

HOUSING OF PIGS

• The house should give adequate protection against direct sunlight and rain. Hogs are sensitive to heat and cold.

• The floor and wall should be strong to withstand the rooting habits of pigs. Concrete flooring is durable and easy to clean. The walls may be of bricks, finished smoothly and doors of strong wooden planks or iron.

• Feed troughs and water troughs may be placed along the front to facilitate feeding from outside.

• Pigs thrive well in temperature range of 20-25oC. Provide shade, wallowing tank, cooling devices such as sprinkling of water, washing etc. to maintain thermal comfort.

• Design should be such that all animals are observable easily from outside and the labour requirement is less.

• Boars, pregnant and dry sows, gilts and growing pigs are usually kept in open yards with partially sheltered area. Farrowing sows are housed in completely enclosed houses or pens.

• Simple low cost houses constructed with locally available materials as per above guidelines are preferred in rural areas. Multipurpose pens, which can be used, for all categories of pigs can also be designed meeting the floor space requirement.

• Individual or group housing in cages made up of vertical G.I. pipes/M S rods and also farrowing crates can be adopted in large high-tech farms.

• Uncastrated males and females should not be housed together beyond the age of four months.

Housing of Boars

Boar pen should have covered area of 6.25-7.5 m2 and open area of 8.8-12 m2 for exercise. The walls should have a minimum height of 1.5 m.

Housing of Female
Open yard type with partial roofing as in the case of boar may be provided. A total of 10-15 females can be grouped in a pen. An area of 2 m2 per animal may be provided.

Housing of Farrowing sows
Farrowing sows may be housed individually in a farrowing pen of 2.5 x 4.0 = 10.0 m2 having guard rails, creep area, feed and water troughs.

Space requirement of pigs

Type of animal	Floor space requirement (m2 per animal)		Maximum number of animals per pen
	Covered area	Open paddock
Boar	6.0-7.0	8.8-12.0	Individual pens
Farrowing pen	7.0-9.0	8.8-12.0	Individual pens
Fattener (3-5 months old)	0.9-1.2	0.9-1.2	30
Fattener (above five months)	1.3-1.8	1.3.1.8	30
Dry sow/gilt	1.8-2.7	1.4-1.8	3-10

(Source: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development)

Housing of growing and finishing pigs

A covered concrete yard for feeding and resting having feed and water trough arranged in the front side and an open yard in the rear will suffice for fatteners. The total space requirement may be 2 m2 per grower/fattener pig. (Source: Kerala Agricultural University )

Sty

• A dwelling place consists of one or more pen for pigs.

Pen

• It is a part of pig sty for housing single or group of pigs having covered place and an adjoining open yard. The covered place providing feeding and watering trough and also dunging space.

Dry sow and gilt sty

• It is a dwelling place for dry sow and gilt.

Farrowing sty

• It is a dwelling place for nursing sows and litter

Fattening sty

• It is a dwelling place for young pigs kept for fattening purpose

Sick animal sty

• It is a dwelling place for sick pigs particularly meant for segregated from healthy stock.

Stud boar sty

• It is a dwelling place for breeding boars.

FARROWING STY AND GUARD RAILS

Farrowing sty

The farrowing sty shall be designed to provide sufficient room for nursing sow to sleep and for the piglets to move. Provide one or two rows along the walls of the farrowing sty/ compartments for the piglets.

Each compartment should measure 2.5 x 0.75 x 1.2 m height and opening of 300 x 225 mm space shall be provided in each compartment facing the nursing sow.

         Watering and feeding troughs need to be provided in each compartment. Guard rails shall be provided 25 cm above the floor level.

Guard Rails

·                     It is made up of GI pipe of 5 cm diameter and it can be fixed along the wall 20 – 25 cm from the ground and wall

CONSTRUCTION DETAILS OF PIG STY

Floor 

• The floor of the pig sty should be hard and impervious to water and easy to clean and the floor should be laid with concrete and slope towards the drainage.

Roof

• The roof may be RCC flat type or gable roof. Materials for roofing may be asbestos cement sheets or corrugated steel sheets.
• In the regions of extreme climatic conditions, the roof may be insulated by providing a layer of thatching to reduce severity of the heat inside the pig sty.

Door

• The number of doors provided in each sty shall depends on the dimensions of the house.
• Door made up of iron angle and the width of the individual door to individual pen may range from 0.75 – 1.00 m.

Drainage

• Each pig sty shall be provided with alleast one drain on each pig pen.
• The drain shall have a minimum width of 250 mm and a slope of 25 mm.

WALLOWING TANK

• Pigs have very few sweat glands. In areas having warm weather, mature breeding animals and fattening animals need a wallow during summer months. Instead of permitting unsanitary wallows, a masonary wallow with proper drainage would be desirable.
• The size of the wallow will depend upon the number and size of the animals Wallowing tank may be provided in pig breeding farm suited to zones.
• The wallowing tank made of cement concrete and dimension of the tank is less than 2.5 m x 1.2 m x 0.15 m. Alternatively overhead sprinklers and showers may be provided in order to keep the animals cool during summer.

CROSS SECTION FOR 10+1 SOW UNIT

 

Accessory items

Apart from the buildings for the stock, a few subsidiary buildings like weighing yards, loading and unloading ramp, stores garbage boiling vats, wallowing tank etc., are also required. Weighing yard is the place where pigs are periodically collected and weighed. There shall be a permanent ramp on swine farms for loading and unloading pigs into and out from the vehicles used for transportation. There shall be a boiler roome for boiling garbage. There shall be manure pits situated atleast 15 m away from sites.