Animal care and well-being is one of the six We Care® Ethical Principles. Hence, with summer heat arriving, producers are adjusting barn controls to keep pigs cool. National Pork Board’s Director of Animal Science Chris Hostetler offers simple checks producers can take to maintain herd comfort.
“Make sure the louvers on your fans are functioning properly. make sure that the propellers on the fans have been cleaned of dust and that the thermostats in the room are properly adjusted to the to the correct height.”
Thermostat maintenance is considered with system adjustments.
“Make sure that the thermostats are clean and that they are properly functioning. I’ve been in lots of barns where the thermostat is either way up high close to the ceiling or too low in the pen and you get different heat readings, and so, make sure that those thermostats are set accordingly”
As producers reflect on their summer building prep tasks, they are contentious about inputs, and how they directly relate to routine sustainability practices. Hostetler gives a few examples.
“We are conscientious in how we bring things into the farm in terms of our inputs, in terms of feed, conscientious about the energy that we use from a variety of different renewable energy sources, conscientious about the manure that goes out the other end and serves as fertilizer onto the cropland.”
More information on farm maintenance can be found at porkcheckoff.org.
