Piggery groupings and floors

The piggery must be designed so you can manage waste safely and provide your pigs with surroundings that won’t injure them, including flooring.

Diseases can be passed from pig to pig through direct contact and by contact with excretions such as their manure or cough spray. Poorly designed housing and materials (that are hard to clean or dry) increase the risk of disease incidence.

These general principles also apply to outdoor herds through rotational use of land, with younger pigs on pig-cleanest land.

All in, all out (AIAO) systems

In AIAO systems, pigs of the same age (within 2 weeks) or reproductive stage (e.g. farrowing) are housed together in a shed, but arrive and leave at the same time.

This system allows the whole shed to be thoroughly cleaned. Fewer pigs share the same airspace, so dust and bacteria levels are reduced.

AIAO systems also lower the contact between different age groups thus reduces disease incidence.

Flooring

Select flooring systems that:

• can be easily cleaned
• provide a comfortable surface for the animals
• are slip-proof to let your pigs stand and lie down easily, but not too rough
• resist corrosion
• do not wear out rapidly under animals
• can’t be chewed.

Flooring systems come in a range of materials including:

• modular slatted plastic
• steel
• concrete.

Slatted floors

Pens with partly or fully slatted floors are easy to keep clean.

Effluent channels, where manure is submerged in water, can reduce dust, odour and airborne bacteria levels. Flush the pits at least twice a day to reduce ammonia and manure build up.

Partly slatted pens should be approximately twice as long as they are wide with slats covering about 1 quarter of the pen (say to 1.2m length) at 1 end with the drinkers and open pen divisions over the slatted dunging area. The solid section has a slope of say 1:25 towards the pit.

Concrete floors

Design solid concrete floors so that they can be drained and cleaned. Solid floors with no litter and no slats are not desirable as they take more labour to keep clean. They are only suitable for smaller herds and need a definite separation, such as a drop in level between the lying area and the dunging area to keep the lying area dry. The drinkers are located in the dunging area. If litter is used, there may be a lip to contain the litter in the lying area.

Dry concrete floors retain heat and can be warmed by contact with the animal. However, damp concrete floors increase the harmful effects of low temperatures and the construction process and placement of drinkers can reduce this risk. A waterproof membrane is laid under concrete floors during construction.

Litter-based shelters

Deep litter housing may be on compacted earth or concrete floors. Many are changed to concrete to allow a smoother surface for easier cleaning out at the end of the batch of pigs. Litter-based group shelters use a deep layer of bedding material such as straw or sawdust. The litter provides insulation for younger pigs, as well as collecting excreta especially in the dunging area.

In litter-based systems, pigs should be provided with about 30% more floor space per pig than indoor slatted systems. Litter should be replaced or refreshed regularly to ensure good hygiene.

Feeding areas are on concrete pads and this also provides cooler flooring for sows to rest on during warm weather. During hot weather, spray cooling can be provided.