Farmscape for November 28, 2005  (Episode 1980)

Research at the Prairie Swine Centre has shown simple management can dramatically reduce the volume of water that ends up being wasted in the swine barn.

In an effort to curb water waste scientist at the Prairie Swine Centre looked at the flow of the water supplied to the nipple drinker and at the height of the drinker in relation to the size of the pig.

Dr. Harold Gonyou a research scientist in ethology, says scientists found anywhere from 20 to 25 percent of the water flowing through the nipple was going straight to floor.

Clip-Dr. Harold Gonyou-Prairie Swine Centre 

If the flow rate was high, higher than what the pig could keep up with in terms of drinking, then you had some wastage.

In fact you always had some wastage, even if you had a slow flow rate but your wastage was reduced by ten to 15 percent if you had a lower flow rate.

The second thing we looked at was the height of the nipple.

We generally recommend that the nipple should be slightly above the back of the smallest pig so that the pig actually has to lift its head a bit in order to drink from the nipple.

We looked at what would happen if you simply left the drinker at that low height or if you adjusted it.

If you adjust it you can reduce the wastage by 10, 15 even 20 percent when you get into the upper stages of the finishing barn.

When we went to the commercial production system we wanted to look at leaving the nipple at the one height, we wanted to look at adjusting it on a regular basis every two weeks.

We also wanted to look for a labor saving system where we did not have to adjust it but rather we would allow the pig adjust itself and so we used a step.

When the pig first went in to reach the nipple it had to go up to the highest level of that step to reach the nipple and they did.

Their water intake was the same there as we saw in the other treatments.

As they grew to the final stages in finishing they could actually reach the nipple from the floor.

Dr. Gonyou says the take home message is, if you manage your nipple drinker well, you can cut water waste by about 20 percent.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council