By Yuzhi Li and Harold. W. Gonyou for the Prairie Swine Centre - The water intake of pigs is not well known since a large amount of water is wasted from drinkers. A study was conducted to determine water intake and wastage by grower/finisher pigs at nipple drinkers.

Summary

Actual water intakes of growing and finishing pigsare 4.0 and 5.9 l/d, respectively. The pigs wasted 25% of the water flowing from thenipple drinkers. High nipple flow rates increase water spillage of pigs.

Introduction

Among nutrients, water is required in the greatest amount but has received the leastattention. Water intake of grower/finisher pigs has been reported to range from 1.9 to6.8 l/d, depending on body weight and feed intake. However, most 憌ater intake?reported in the literature is water disappearance from drinkers, including water wastage,rather than water actually consumed by the animal. A study was conducted to determineactual water intake and wastage of grower/finisher pigs at nipple drinkers. The effect ofnipple flow rate on water spillage was also included in the study.

Experimental procedures

Six pens of eight pigs were tested at two stages, mean body weight of 53? kg forgrowers and 72? kg for finishers. The pigs were fed pelleted feed ad libitum at roomtemperatures of 20~25oC. The nipple drinker in each pen was 5 cm higher than theshoulder height of the smallest pig. Daily feed intake, water intake, and water wastagein each pen were measured at a nipple flow rate of approximately 700 ml/min. Drinkingspeed and water spillage were assessed for 4 pigs in each pen after 4 h without water,at nipple-flow rates of 651, 1003, 1226 and 2080 ml/min.

Results and discussion

Water intakes (disappearance ?wastage) of the growers and finishers were 4.0 and 5.4l/day, respectively (Table 1). When expressed in terms of feed intake, water intakes atthe two stages were identical. Water wastage was 1.3 and 1.9 l/day for the growers andfinishers, respectively, accounting for 25% of the total water disappearance for bothgrowers and finishers. This is lower than what (40~60%) has been estimated oncommercial farms. Proper height and flow rate of the nipple drinkers in the current studycould contribute to the improvement in water wastage. Drinking speed of pigs wasincreased to 1422 ml of actual water intake/min at the nipple flow rate of 2080 ml/min(Fig. 1). Although the pigs increased drinking speed, water spillage was higher at thehigh flow rate than at the low flow rate (23.2% at 2080 ml/min vs. 8.6% at 650 ml/min,Fig.2).

Implications

Growing and finishing pigs waste 25% of water from well-managed nipple drinkers. Itseems that water wastage could be reduced by properly adjusting nipple height and flowrate.

Acknowledgements

Funding for this project was provided by an NSERC/AAFC grant. Strategic programfunding was provided by Sask. Pork, Alberta Pork, Manitoba Pork and SaskatchewanAgriculture and Food Development Fund.

Table 1. Water intake and wastage of growing and finishing pigs*

*Least square means (n=6). NS=no significant difference (P > 0.05).

Fig.1. Drinking speed of grower/finisher
pigs at different nipple flow rates


Fig. 2. Water wastage of grower/finisher
pigs at different nipple flow rates

Source - Prairie Swine Centre - February 2004