AgriNews highlights how revolutionary know-how retains hogs cool.

A patented cooling pad know-how for hogs will likely be obtainable subsequent spring. The cooling pads include 2-by-4-foot aluminum tread plates positioned on high of copper pipes that flow into water. Sensors within the pads are capable of detect if the hog is just too sizzling and can flow into new water to maintain the pad cool. Retaining sows cooler in the summertime has a number of advantages, together with improved feed consumption, milk output, and piglet wean weight. The know-how was developed by Allan Schinckel, a professor in Purdue’s Division of Animal Sciences, and Robert M. Stwalley III, an affiliate scientific professor in Purdue’s Division of Agricultural and Organic Engineering.

The manufacturing and sale of the cooling pad know-how will likely be dealt with by IHT Group, a division of Decisive Dividend Company. In response to Francisco Cabezon, analysis president at Pipestone Analysis, lactating sows cut back their feed consumption and milk output underneath heat-stress situations in an try to cut back their metabolic warmth manufacturing. This results in damaging results on piglet development and subsequent reproductive efficiency. For boars, warmth stress results in decreased sperm motility and focus, in addition to a rise in sperm abnormalities.

Preliminary analysis on the cooling pad know-how confirmed that sows grew to become extra comfy when utilizing the pads. General respiration charges decreased, inner temperatures had been barely decrease, and each day most temperatures had been additionally decrease. As well as, the sows produced extra warmth, leading to a rise in feed consumption and milk manufacturing. This enchancment in animal welfare and well-being is critical. Piglets who used the cooling pads skilled a 26% enhance in weaning weight and a 7.2% enhance in feed consumption.