Modifying an Outdoor Farrowing Hut for Alternative Indoor Farrowing During Summer and Winter

The objective of this project was to modify an outdoor farrowing hut for winter and summer farrowing indoors to meet niche pork market requirements. Typical modified A-frame plywood outdoor farrowing huts were used to farrow sows indoors in summer and winter. The farrowing occurred in an insulated lean-to shed of a larger machine shed.

During summer, the huts were fitted with a common 20-inch box fan positioned in the hut roof blowing down on the sow (Figures 2 and 3). This helped keep air moving over the sow during hot weather. At night when the temperature dropped, a thermostat in the fan would switch the fan off.

A hover was built for the back of each hut and fitted with two heat lamps (Figure 4). This attachment provided a warm draft-free area for the piglets away from the sow. Also, the heat lamps were inaccessible to the sow to minimize risk of fire. These simple modifications helped keep the sows comfortable and piglets warm in a bedded alternative farrowing arrangement.