Reducing Energy Use in Group Sow Housing Systems

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre, Production by student on June 11, 2018

Traditionally, sow housing systems are maintained at the Lower Critical Limit (LCT) of approximately 16.5°C, dropping below this can have significant effects on the productivity and health status of the sow. This experiment studied the interaction between group housing, high heat-increment diets, and the sows ability to control temperature to potentially reduce energy usage in production. Group housing allows for some thermoregulation by the sow, thus allowing them to be housed in temperatures lower than the LCT. An operant mechanism was developed for this experiment that allowed the sows to control their own temperature by a manual control switch. Within this experiment sows were fed two diets, one with a high heat increment and a standard gestation diet. When looking at the sows fed the high heat increment diet they maintain a lower temperature in both a chamber (experimental room) and in an actual gestation room. In the chamber they maintained a temperature of around 11.9°C and in the gestation room a temperature as low as 8°C. In addition to maintaining a lower temperature, within the sow controlled room (as opposed to a preset room), a lower CO₂ concentration was observed demonstrating a better air quality. Allowing sows to control their own temperature resulted in around 75% less natural gas consumption and 11% less electricity consumption. This decrease in consumption could translate into as much as a 59% decrease in the overall cost of heating and electricity.

Reducing Energy Use in Group Sow Housing Systems – 2017

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