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EFFECT OF THE WARM-BED ON THE LYING BEHAVIOUR OF THE WEANED PIG IN WINTER

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium, 18-20 May 2005 (Beijing, China) Publication Date 18 May 2005  701P0205.(doi:10.13031/2013.18353)
Authors:   Daolei Zhou, Baoming Li, Zhengxiang Shi, Gang Chen and Luqin Li
Keywords:   Warm-bed, weaned pig, lying behaviour, temperature

In practice, the temperature in the weaned pig house needs to be kept at 26.6`18.3R in winter. In order to decrease energy consumption, a new type of local heating equipment--the warm-bed was applied in the weaned pig house. In this study, the relationship in the number of the weaned pigs lying in the warm-bed, the pigsf age and the indoor aerial temperature was evaluated. The lying behaviour of the weaned piglets was observed and recorded at 08:00 14:00 20:00 and 24:00 everyday during the experiment. The indoor air temperature was measured every 5min. On the basis of the results from the test, the following conclusions may be drawn:

    1. When the average indoor temperature was 13.0R, the average air temperature inside the warm-bed with a curtain and without a curtain was 28.6R and 17.9R respectively.
    2. When the indoor aerial temperature was lower than 9.9R and the weaned pigs were less than 48-days-old, more than 98.9% of the pigs chose the warm-bed with a curtain to lie.
    3. With the growth of pigs, the proportion of the weaned pigs lying in the warm-bed with a curtain decreased from 98.9% to 35.6%.
    4. Using the warm-bed, the lower indoor aerial temperature, such as 13.0R, did not affect the performance of the weaned pigs.
From the above results, it can be concluded that the temperature of the weaned pig house with a warm-bed could be kept at 13.0R to save energy.

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