HOUSING AND

EQUIPMENT IN SWINE
PRODUCTION
Structural Components
of Swine Housing
BUILDING ORIENTATION
• In designing a pig house, the first
requirement is to protect the animals from
direct sunlight; thus, the long axis of the
building must be laid in an east-west
direction. Air temperature, air velocity,
floor insulation, infrared radiation, and
relative humidity determine the thermal
environment around the animal must be
considered.
ROOFING
• Roofs must be designed to reduce the
ambient heat load reaching the animals
and to provide for efficient removal of the
animal’s body heat.
• Common roofing materials are made of
corrugated galvanized iron (G.I.) sheet
and heat insulators. The roof’s outer
surface must be light colored to
efficiently reflect the sun’s radiation,
while the inner surface of the roof must
be dark colored to minimize heat buildup
inside the house.
PARTITION WALLS AND GATES
• Slatted partition walls made of round
iron bars and G.I. pipes may be
adopted.
• Provide easy access to and from the
pen.
• Doors must be durable and provided
with security-tight locks.
• The most commonly used materials
are round iron bar, round black iron
pipe, round G.I. pipe, square iron bar,
flat bar, wood, or bamboo.
FLOORING
1. Solid floors
Concrete floors shall be paved on a well compacted gravel fills and shall
have 2% - 4 % slope towards a gutter or drainage canal. The direction of
the slope shall be away from the feeding trough.
2. Slotted floors
Slotted floors should be made of concrete, plastic, metals or
combination of such materials. It shall be constructed to allow manure
and urine to pass through.
RECOMMENDED SLAT WIDTH AND
SPACING
FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS
PENS
1. Farrowing pen
A type of crate by whch is used
to confine the sow from up to a
week before giving birth.
2. Growing pen
Separate pens for growers should be provided. The size of each pen
shall be designed to hold not more than 25 growers.
EXAMPLE Growing pen with a dimension of 1.5 m x 4.8 m shall
accommodate 20 growers.

3. Finishing pen
Separate pens for finishers should be provided. The size of each pen
shall be designed to hold not more than 25 finishers.
EXAMPLE Finishing pen with a dimension of 1.5 m x 4.8 m shall
accommodate 10 finishers.
4. Gestating pen
Sows should be either housed individually (box/stall) or by group. For
individual pen, the dimension should be 0.66 m x 1.8 m.

3. Boar pen
Pen for boars should be located close to the dry sow accommodation.
The pen should be provided with a service crate.
HOUSING SYSTEMS
• Housing systems and facilities depend
on the size and extent of the operation.
• In small-scale operations, raisers adopt
the conventional or all-purpose housing
system. This system combines several
farm operations into one building. It can
accommodate non-pregnant and
pregnant sows, gilts, and piglets. It can
also be used for the growing-finishing
operation.
 HOUSING SYSTEM
OUTFLOW
PHILIPPINE AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING STANDARD
PAES 401:2001
Agricultural Structures – Housing for Swine
Production
ONE-UNIT SYSTEM
• In this system, the sows are removed when the piglets reach weaning
age. The pigs remain in the same building from farrowing until they
reach the desired weight for slaughtering
TWO-UNIT SYSTEM
• The sows and piglets remain in the farrowing house until the piglets
are weaned. The weanlings are transferred to a growing-finishing
house.
THREE-UNIT SYSTEM
• The sows and piglets remain in the farrowing house until weaning.
The weanlings are moved to a nursery house and finally to a
growing-finishing unit where they stay until they are ready for
slaughter.
FOUR-UNIT SYSTEM
• The sows and piglets remain in the farrowing house until weaning.
After weaning, piglets are moved to a nursery house, then to a growing
house and finally to a finishing house until they are ready for
slaughter.
LIFE CYCLE HOUSING
SYSTEM
PRE-GESTATION AND BOAR UNIT
• The breeding house must have sufficient space to accommodate
mating activities. Mating should take place in the boar’s pen
because of its labor and safety advantages.
• Requirements:
• The air moisture level (relative humidity) should be maintained at about
70%.
• Approximately 16–18 hours of light should be maintained daily.
• Boars should be housed individually to avoid injury due to fighting and
for better mating performance.
• Bedding materials such as sand, wood shavings, or rice straw may be
used in cases of leg problems
GESTATION UNIT
•House recently bred and
pregnant gilts and sows in
individual stalls to prevent
injury, feed competition,
and unnecessary stress that
may lead to failure in
fertilization or abortion.
FARROWING UNIT
• Transfer pregnant animals to this
unit one week before the expected
farrowing date. House the animals
in elevated and slatted farrowing
crates.
• Always provide the farrowing crate
with a creep area equipped with
sufficient heat source. Light bulb,
ultraviolet lamps, or LPG-fired
convection lamps are common
sources of heat. Common types of
flooring for the creep area are
plastic- coated wire mesh, plastic,
and/or metal flooring materials
GROWING-FINISHING UNIT
• Adopt an “all-in, all-out” scheme
per pen. Animals can be housed in
conventional pens with concrete
floor and partition walls made of
either concrete, round bars, or G.I.
pipes.
MINIMUM SPACE REQUIREMENT FOR
SWINE
SPACE REQUIREMENT FOR SWINE
PRODUCTION FACILITIES AND
EQUIPMENT
THE FEEDING TROUGH
• Feeding is given to pig in several ways • For weanlings
depending on the management practice. a. 15 to 20 cm wide inside
The most common is feeding the animals measurement.
twice a day. b. 10 to 15 cm deep inside
measurement.
• Common feeding area is made of
c. The feeding trough is divided by
concrete. Moreover, in backyard steel bars 15 to 20 cm apart.
operations, some raisers used split tires.
• For Growing-Finishing
For larger-scale production self-feeders
a. 20 to 25 cm wide inside
are used that have a feed capacity measurement.
sufficient for the animals for 24 hours. b. 10 to 15 cm deep inside
measurement.
c. The feeding trough is divided by
steel bars 25cm apart.
THE FEEDING TROUGH
• Suckling piglets are provided
concentrate feeds through the
creep feeder. The average
measurements for concrete creep
feeding trough:
a. 10 to 20 cm wide
b. 10 cm deep with half moon
bottom
c. 40 to 50 cm along divided by
steel bars 10 cm apart
 WATERING FACILITIES
• Water trough or waterers shall not be
placed beside the feeding trough to keep
feeding area of the swine dry and clean.
The linear space requirement for watering
is the same for the space requirement for
feeding.
• Types of Waterers: Automatic watering
cups and Nozzle type waterers
• For automatic watering cups or bowls, 1 cup/20
weaner, 1cup/12 gilts, and 1 cup/10 sows
• For Nozzle type waterers; 1 nipple/10 pigs and
1 nipple/12-15 growing-finishing pigs
HEATERS LIGHTING
• Heaters shall be installed in creep Artificial lighting shall always be
areas to provide newborn pigs it is available for use during the night
required temperature of 27 – 35 or darkened periods of the day.
Celsius until they are 3 days old.
• Can be made from charcoal lamp,
LPG Heaters, and Mercury Lamps.
• Heat lamps shall be placed 762
mm above the floor or 152 mm
above the sow.
Tools Needed in Swine
Production
 Ear Notcher
• The ear notcher tool is used to notch the ears of baby pigs.
• Ear notching is used to identify the pigs.
• Ear notching is typically done within 7 days of birth, and is
often accompanied with iodine to prevent any infection from
occurring.
**You can learn more about how to ear notch and how to read ear notches
in the section titled “Ear Notching”.
 Syringe/Needle
s
• Syringes are used to administer medications to animals.
• They are typically plastic and have measurements down the
side to properly measure the correct dose of medicine.
• It is extremely important to replace the needle after using and to
place old needles in a safe, puncture-proof sharps container.

Syringe

Sharps Container
 Dose Injector
• A dose injector is a safe way to
ensure that each animal gets the
proper dose.
• Since human error can lead to the use
of both too much and too little
medication, a dose injector can be
programmed to allow a producer to
use medications effectively.
 Scalpel
• A scalpel is a common tool that is
used in castration.
• The scalpel is used to make either
two vertical cuts or one
horizontal cut to the scrotum
followed by cutting the spermatic
cord and removing the testes.
 Preg-Ton
e
• Preg-tone is an ultrasonic pregnancy
detector.
• It uses ultrasound to detect amniotic
fluid present during pregnancy.
• When this fluid is detected, the instrument
produces a loud, continuous tone,
indicating that the animal is pregnant.
• If the animal is not pregnant, it produces
an intermittent (static) recurring tone.
 OB Snare and OB Forceps
• An OB snare and OB forceps are tools utilized
during farrowing.
• If the sow is having trouble, these tools can provide assistance
to remove piglets.
 Livestock Paint Stick
• In order to identify which pigs have been treated in a facility,
farmers may use a livestock marking crayon, or paint stick,
to identify the animals.
 Artificial Insemination Breeding Rods
• Artificial insemination rods, or spirettes, are used to inseminate a
gilt or sow with boar semen.
• When using the rod, it should be inserted at a slightly upward angle (45
degree angle) and be turned counterclockwise until it locks into the
cervix. If using a foam tip rod, it does not need to be turned.
• Once the breeding rod is locked into place, the semen tube can be
placed in the tip of the rod.
 Ear Tagger
• Some shows or events may require an ear tag as an additional
form of identification.
• The ear tagger is shown below with some examples of ear tags.
• An Ear Tagger is used to put tags in pigs ears.
• Ear Tags are used to identify pigs.
Universal Ear-notching System
• Ear-notching helps identify a pig’s litter and which one of the litter it is,
giving each pig a unique identity number.
• Notches are placed in one of five locations in the pig’s right ear — to
show the litter number — and in one of three locations in the left ear —
to show the individual pig number.
FOR LITTER NUMBERS 92, 34 PIG
NUMBERS 14 AND 7
UPCA CODE FOR EARNOTCHING