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Principles of Design
The ideal pigsty allows easy dung and urine collection and separates the different age groups of the animals. The pigsty should be at the backside of the house in order to avoid disturbance by bad odour. The pigsty is divided into the following compartments:
-The boar box, which is big enough to accommodate both the boar and the sow for mating.
-The farrowing box, with protection rails for piglets to hide when the sow lays down.
-The gestating box for sow and weaning piglets
-The finishing box (boxes) for growing piglets no longer weaning.
-The finishing box (boxes) for pigs to grow to market size.
Each of the compartments consists of a clean resting and feeding area and a dirty area where pigs defecate. The dirty areas of several boxes are Inter-connected and form a corridor in order to allow easy cleaning and washing of the floor. Pigs need a draft-free and rather uniform environment (min 15°C for adults, 22°C for piglets). Therefore, the wall of the boxes should be built to a height of 1,50 m completely closed and a roof of only 1,80-2,00 m above the floor.
Construction Details
The slope of the floor of the boxes to the corridor and that of the corridor to the dung and urine chamber is 2%. The doors of the boxes close the individual compartments when opening the corridor and vice versa. Walls of the boxes are made from brickwork with rough plastering.
The fodder trough is covered or protected by bars to prevent the pigs from laying in the fodder. There is a pipe for draining and easy cleaning at the bottom of the trough.
Fig. 31: Principle design of the
pigsty
Pigs have a natural habit of defecating always in the same corner of their stable. Therefore, cleaning becomes easy if the dung areas of several stable boxes are inter-connected to form a corridor ( 1). The doors of the boxes are of the same width as the corridor (2). Normally the doors are open and divide the corridor into compartments belonging to the boxes (A). During cleaning of the stable, the doors are closed, leaving the corridor free (B). The floor of the stable slopes to the urine drain and the drain into the urine chamber (5). The dung chamber (4) is placed beside. A platform at the open end of the corridor is for easy transport of pigs (3). The stable consists of boxes for boar and sow for mating (6), weaning mother sows (7), older piglets (8), smaller pigs (9), and grown up pigs ready for slaughter (10). The troughs are each of appropriate size to the size of the pigs and are protected by a concrete apron to prevent pigs from laying into the fodder (11).
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