Swine Building

a building used for housing hogs. Some specialized swine buildings house animals bred for the same practical use, whereas other buildings house swine of the same sex and age. There are buildings for farrowing sows (capacities of 50, 100, 150, and 200 sows), for boars used in breeding and for replacement boars, for weanling pigs (capacities of 1,200–1,800, with self-feeding systems), for barren and brood sows, for animals being fattened (capacities of 1,000 and 2,000, with group-keeping systems), and for young replacement pigs. Specialized blocks include fattening blocks and reproduction blocks, which are used for various groups of sow herds and weanling pigs. There are also blocks for housing animals of all age and sex groups during the complete cycle of pork production.

Swine buildings of all types are utilized in commercial swine breeding. They are usually rectangular single-story structures with standardized bays; sometimes buildings with more than one story are used. Animals are raised individually or in groups in pens or tiered cages. The area and dimensions of a building are determined by the technological design standards for swine-breeding farms: for barren and brood sows, 1.5 sq m per sow on commercial farms and 1.8 sq m per sow on pedigree farms; for weanling pigs grouped in pens containing as many as 30 pigs, 0.25–0.3 sq m per animal; for weanling pigs kept in tiered cages (three to five tiers), approximately 0.2 sq m; and swine being fattened and kept in group pens or tiered cages (two to three tiers), 0.5–0.7 sq m per animal. When swine are fed in the pens, the standard area of a pen is increased by 0.1–0.4 sq m. From front to back, an individual pen measures 2.4–2.5 m, and a group pen as much as 3.5 m; the lateral length takes into consideration the frontage needed for feeding the pigs. Crosswise and lengthwise feed and feed-and-dunging alleys (minimum width, 1.4 m) run between the rows of pens, as do discharge alleys (1.4–1.5 m in width) and service alleys (1.0 m in width). The floor slopes in the direction of the liquid drainage; thus lengthwise in the alleys the slope is 0.005–0.01 °, and crosswise in the alleys and pens the slope is 0.015–0.02°.

Other sections of a swine building, which are often larger than the pens, include compartments for storing equipment and bedding (if used), rooms for the attendants, and an area for weighing the animals. For artificial fertilization, reproduction blocks and specialized boar buildings are equipped with a main working area, a laboratory, an area for washing the animals, and a pen for fertilized animals.

Swine buildings are generally equipped with waterlines, ventilation, heating, a sewage system, and electric lighting. During fall and winter, suckling and weanling pigs are exposed to ultraviolet rays to artificially stimulate growth. In order to mechanize and automate production processes, including feeding, watering, and dung removal, swine buildings have been equipped with special equipment or systems of machines and mechanisms, for example, automatic feeders and waterers and hydraulic dung-flushing systems.

In connection with the transition to new pork production technology, large swine-breeding complexes are being constructed in many areas.