Piglet Heat Pads Reduce Crush Loss
Heat placement for young pigs is a critical component for maintaining optimal health and getting animals started quickly. In farrowing environments, piglets must be kept from becoming chilled, which often leads to scours, more tail-enders and fewer healthy, thriving piglets.
Stanfield heat pads from Osborne Industries are designed to provide supplemental heat to newborn piglets and growing nursery pigs. Stanfield heat pads provide a warm resting area that helps keep piglets away from sows and helps in preventing crush losses. Several tests have been conducted and validate a 0.5 pig-per-litter increase with mats due to diminished crush loss.
The pad’s surface temperature stays uniformly warm, about 30° to 35° F above air temperature. The heat pad’s tough, fiberglass-reinforced composite material blocks drafts coming from the pit, is easy to clean and gives animals solid footing.
Listed under CSA, UL and CE guidelines, Stanfield heat pads are safe to operate. At maximum power, an S1B4 heat pad uses 66 percent less power than a heat lamp. Plus, there is no chance of “blowing a bulb,” which may happen with heat lamps.
The electrical savings with 4-foot mats vs. 125-watt bulbs averages $56 per year per stall. Osborne’s Stanfield heat pads are available in a variety of sizes and wattages.
For more information, visit the company’s website at osbornelivestockequipment.com, or e-mail info@osborne-ind.com.
Promote Your Open House
If you are considering having an open house to feature new or renovated swine facilities, the National Pork Board’s “We Care” program offers some very useful support materials. NPB is offering open house kits to provide producers with the promotional tools necessary to gain media and community attention on the opening or redesign of their facilities.
By promoting open house events for swine facilities, producers can demonstrate their commitment to their communities while displaying the economic impact and value of a swine operation.
The kit includes newspaper advertisements, a sample agenda, sample press release and other tools to promote the open house. Each document highlights the “We Care” initiative, showing the public that pork producers are committed to doing the right thing.
“An open house is an excellent opportunity to show the public what goes on behind the walls of the barn and to share the story of the farm family involved in the project,” said Tim Maiers, director of public relations for the Illinois Pork Producers Association. “The open house kit provides producers with the tools and resources necessary to assist them in planning and implementing a successful event.”
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