As the weather gets colder pig producers should revisit the ventilation settings in controlled environment buildings, according to ARM Buildings’ pig environment specialist Tim Miller.
Following a summer of record-breaking high temperatures, he advises farmers to revisit their buildings’ ventilation settings to avoid wasting money unnecessarily running ventilation fans.
“During the hot weather, farmers had to set minimum ventilation rates quite high and, in some cases, the temperatures were above the normal trigger points on the alarm systems resulting in false call outs. But now that weather has cooled down these need to be adjusted,” said Mr Miller.
He continued: “With high energy costs, having minimum ventilation rates set too high means that fans are running unnecessarily causing producers to waste heat and ‘burn’ money by heating the surrounding countryside!”
Mr Miller believes that it is possible for farmers to make savings of between £20 and £30 per day, in a 400 to 500-pig house, by adjusting their fan settings to the correct level.
Plus, setting ventilation rates to the most sensible level will help to create the correct environment for pigs and safeguard their welfare, he concluded.