EXPERTS’ TIPS – PIGS – Water – an important element in pig production

When talking about pig nutrition, we often focus on: ration balancing, feed parameters and good quality raw materials. However, we tend to forget how important water is in the entire feeding process. We often forget to ensure adequate access, flow in the facilities and, above all, we do not care about hygiene. Claiming that a pig will drink anything. I will write about hygiene at the end. So what if we have clean water if there is no proper access and flow of water.

The water requirement for pigs is closely related to the amount of dry feed intake per day. Regardless of whether pigs receive dry or wet feed, animals must be given the opportunity to regulate their water intake. Restricting access to water causes production losses. Water requirements also depend on the chemical composition of the feed. Pigs drink more water if there is too much protein or minerals in the feed or if they have diarrhoea. Insufficient water reduces feed intake, which has a negative effect on milk yield in sows, proper rearing of piglets or weight gain in fattening pigs.

Nowadays, in fattening houses and sow sheds, breeders install the so-called automatic drinkers, which include nipple drinkers, stainless steel and cast-iron bowl drinkers and fixed water level drinkers. One of the most important issues is to determine the minimum and maximum flow rate of water through the drinkers installed in piggeries, which should be:

With dry feeding, animals with access to drinkers take up about four to five times more water than dry feed mass, so the rate of water flow in the drinker has a significant impact on daily gain.

In addition to an adequate flow of water through the drinkers, we should also pay attention to installing the right number of drinkers and at a height that allows the animals free access to the water. In fattening and piggeries, the number of drinkers depends on the type of feed machine:

It would be worth mentioning that when animals have diarrhoea problems then they grow weaker and differentiate. This is not always the fault of the feed.

Often farmers do not pay attention to the quality of the water the animals drink, which should be of the same quality as drinking water for humans. Even excellent quality water (e.g. from deep-water intakes) can become contaminated. If a bacterial or fungal population develops inside the pipes, it can impair the taste of the water (which affects intake) or cause diarrhoea – especially in young animals. The presence of algae and scale inside the pipes additionally poses the risk of clogged drinkers.
Poor-quality water and contaminated pipes can also impair the effect of drugs often administered through watering systems.

It is therefore best to hygienise the water system with special preparations after each throw. This involves a small expense and will help reduce the risk of many problems.

Pig Nutrition Advisor
Krzysztof Gańko