Livestock Engineering Machinery and Techniques for Pig Husbandry

The requirements of the new “Tierschutz-Nutztierhaltungsverordnung (TierSchNutztV)“, the animal welfare labels and the increasing demand from German food retail market for more animal welfare pose new challenges for fattening and rearing. The supply of organic enrichment material is problematic, especially in the prevailing housing systems with slatted floors. Here the material and how it is offered must be selected due to the animals and the husbandry system. The requirement of many labels to offer a solid lying area is difficult to implement in conventional housing systems. To optimize this, the individual activity areas of the pens should be adapted to the needs of the pigs. Another change in the TierSchNutztV states that the thermal stress on the animals must be reduced. There are various systems to implement this by lowering the room temperature, wetting surfaces and animals or cooling surfaces.