Options to keep cool - May 14th 2009
Providing sows with choices of how to cool down over the summer months gives a large group of dry sows a better chance of avoiding heat stress. One unit provides backless dry sow huts, shades and wallows in all dry sow paddocks.
The sows seem to find one of these areas preferential and you will see groups in wallows, in backless huts and under the shades on straw pads. The unit provides wallows near the troughs which is not ideal but when they only had wallows the large group would limit the access to the troughs, a risk for water provision for submissive sows.