Hoop structure for wean to finish pigs: management and gender influence in a summer trial

Abstract

The study was carried out in a hoop structure at the university’s Animal Experimental Unit. Twenty hybrid barrows at 28 kg average body weight and 21 hybrid gilts with 27 kg were populated into two separate pens on 06 of April 2016. The animals were kept in a hoop structure utilizing a deep bedded production system at ambient summer conditions with natural ventilation for 97 days. No clinical heat stress signs were observed during the trial even though the inside temperature was 19.95±0.07оC and the humidity index was 65.15±0.18 over an average of 7,389 inside and outside environmental measurements. The inside temperature was higher (+0.78 оC at p < 0.000) and humidity index was lower (-0.74% at p < 0.000) than outside measurements. There was a strong correlation between inside and outside temperature (r = 0.984 at p < 0.01) and humidity index (r = 0.926 at p < 0.010). Animals were weighed twice per month and they were scanned monthly for body fat and eye muscle depth and area. On 13 of April, at initiation of the experiment, the body weight was 33±0.65 for 20 barrows vs. 31.9±0.59 for 19 gilts (p = 0.220) and at delivery to the slaughter house the body weight was 114.25±1.74 kg and 108.71±2.13 kg (p = 0.049) respectively. During the entire wean-finish period the average daily gain was 902.70±18.37 for barrows and 850.95±24.15 for gilts (p = 0.097) and feed conversion was 2.71 kg feed: kg live weight for barrows and 2.69 kg feed: kg live weight in gilts. The study is encouraging for the use of deep bedded hoop structures on low input farms as a swine wean-finish management system during the Romanian summer environment.