Pig Production Guide

Finishing Indoors - Straw

Indoor straw finishing systems use either general farm buildings or specific pig buildings to house groups of finishing pigs. Through careful management it is possible to ensure the pigs develop separate areas within a straw pen for lying and sleeping and for dunging. Usually the manure from pens will be removed either every other day or on a weekly basis depending on the design of the building.

Alternative fresh bedding is routinely added to the pen to provide a dry clean area. There is very strict legislation regarding indoor pig farming. This lays down rules on the type and composition of flooring to ensure it cannot cause suffering to the pigs when standing, walking or lying.

There are also laws regarding the numbers, feed size and rules to ensure all pigs in a group have access to food in a way that avoids the chance of aggression. There are also controls on the number of water outlets, flow rates, temperatures levels, noise levels and the amount of light. All of these are checked every three months as part of the pig assurance scheme requirements.

Rearing and finishing pigs are usually kept in the same small groups throughout production. Ideally they are kept in their litter group of 10-11 piglets, however, where space does not allow this litter groups are usually only mixed once at the beginning of the rearing stage (7kg or 12kgs). The principal reasons for this is to minimise the risk of disease spread between groups and to reduce the amount of fighting and stress that occurs when groups are mixed together and they have to determine a new pecking order.

Feed makes up 60 per cent of the production costs within rearing and finishing. Normally pig rations comprise cereals, protein, minerals and vitamins in a compound form. A pig’s diet must be well balanced and meet the needs of the pig which means it will have to change at different stages of growth. As pigs get older and heavier the amount of protein they need falls which means a cheaper diet can be used.

Antibiotic growth promoters are prohibited from pig production. Antibiotics may only be used for therapeutic purposes to treat disease and must be prescribed by a veterinarian