A patented cooling pad know-how for hogs shall be out there subsequent spring. The cooling pads include 2-by-4-foot aluminum tread plates positioned on prime of copper pipes that flow into water. Sensors within the pads are in a position to detect if the hog is just too sizzling and can flow into new water to maintain the pad cool. Retaining sows cooler in the summertime has a number of advantages, together with improved feed consumption, milk output, and piglet wean weight. The know-how was developed by Allan Schinckel, a professor in Purdue’s Division of Animal Sciences, and Robert M. Stwalley III, an affiliate medical professor in Purdue’s Division of Agricultural and Organic Engineering.

The manufacturing and sale of the cooling pad know-how shall be dealt with by IHT Group, a division of Decisive Dividend Company. In accordance with Francisco Cabezon, analysis president at Pipestone Analysis, lactating sows scale back their feed consumption and milk output beneath heat-stress circumstances in an try to cut back their metabolic warmth manufacturing. This results in unfavorable results on piglet development and subsequent reproductive efficiency. For boars, warmth stress results in decreased sperm motility and focus, in addition to a rise in sperm abnormalities.

Preliminary analysis on the cooling pad know-how confirmed that sows grew to become extra snug when utilizing the pads. Total respiration charges decreased, inside temperatures have been barely decrease, and every day most temperatures have been additionally decrease. As well as, the sows produced extra warmth, leading to a rise in feed consumption and milk manufacturing. This enchancment in animal welfare and well-being is important. Piglets who used the cooling pads skilled a 26% enhance in weaning weight and a 7.2% enhance in feed consumption.