Animal drinking and cleaning are the top uses of water in swine barns. Using water conservation strategies to reduce water use will ultimately lower cost of production and contribute towards a more sustainable environment as less manure slurry is created. In order to find out which water conservation strategy is most effective, experiments were performed using different animal drinkers and cleaning strategies. It was found that about 60% less water wastage was achieved when a trough with side panel and constant water level was used compared to the nipple drinkers. Also, at barn clean up, the use of a conventional nozzle led to lesser time and water consumption during high pressure washing.

The results suggest that the use of the trough with the side panel and constant water level for drinking has the greatest potential for water savings without affecting pig performance. High pressure washing using the rotating turbo nozzle led to lesser time and water consumption during the cleaning process. Also, high pressure washing in fully slatted concrete flooring can be done without prior water sprinkling (soaking).