Over the past couple of weeks, keeping an eye on the animals you’re raising has been even more important because of the dangerous heat. Dr. Chris Hostetler, the Director of Animal Science with the National Pork Board explained some quick tips. “Certainly, keeping the barns and the settings on the ventilation, you know, making sure that those are correct for fan speeds and a number of fans running, but also making sure that all of it is maintained. That can be a challenge as well.”
Hostetler also took some time to explain signs of heat stress you should watch out for when in the barn doing chores. For example, one of the first signs is a change in feeding patterns. If your pigs normally eat a lot during the day and not much at night but suddenly switch, that’s a red flag.
There are other tell-tale signs as well. “Certainly, increased respiration rate, laying over the cool parts of the floor. If you have a partially-slatted floor, they will lay over the slats rather than the solid portion of the floor. And of course, that changes their dunging patterns, dunging behavior,” he went on to explain, “If you’ve got a water meter on your building, you can see water intake, increased water utilization increase. Those are some of the indicators that pigs are no longer operating in their thermal-neutral zone and that they’re warmer than what they typically would be.”
Lastly, Dr. Hostetler tells 4-H and FFA members about watering their hogs. He says that if you have a hose out in the yard to water the pigs, you have to let it run for a few minutes because they aren’t going to want the 100-degree water coming out of the hose until it’s cold again. Also, he brought up gravity-fed waterers with a nipple on the bottom for the pigs. “That’s relying on the, on the weight of the water to deliver that. That’s not nearly enough water delivery to meet the demands of those pigs, and so, a pressurized water system is important when delivering water to the pigs,” Dr. Hostetler said.
Please keep an eye on your fair animals and make sure they’re doing alright in this heat.
