Proper Ventilation Key to Health, Comfort and Productivity of the Pig

A Technical Services Director with PIC suggests ongoing maintenance of ventilation equipment is key to ensuring the atmosphere within the swine barn promotes the health, comfort and productivity of the pigs. "Why Ventilation Matters," was among the topics discussed last week as part of Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2025 in Saskatoon.

Nat Stas, a Technical Services Director with PIC, says we talk a lot about floor space and feeder space and water but we also need to make sure the air that the pigs are breathing is good enough to allow the pig to perform and we need to make sure those pigs are in their thermal neutral zone, not too hot or too cold, and proper ventilation can influence that balance.

Quote-Nat Stas-PIC:

When we look at ventilation on the surface, for one we need to make sure the pigs have enough oxygen.If pigs don't have enough oxygen, then they're not going to be able to breath as easily and they're not going to perform as well.From there, humidity is a good proxy.

We want our humidity to be between 50 and 65 percent in our barn and if it gets too high, typically that means our gas levels go up, pigs don't feel as comfortable and they don't perform as well and we can start to see ill effects from the health perspective as well.I'm no veterinarian or biosecurity expert but, when we get our humidity and gas levels too high, we can see an influx of respiratory diseases as well and that all leads to poorer pig production.
So, we need to make sure we keep our humidity at between 50 and 65 percent.

Then the other thing I would say is our airspeed.Air moves two feet for every hundred feet per minute of air speed so if we want to move air 12 feet, our airspeed goal should be 600 feet per minute. 600 to 800 captures most pig barns out there and that helps us create a consistent environment to make sure we don't have stale air pockets and we don't have really well-ventilated pockets.

We need to make sure we get our humidity right and our airspeed right and we're doing a really good job ventilating our pig barn.

Stas notes ventilation equipment is designed to bring air into the barn in a specific way so we need to seal gaps that have developed over the years and doorways and we need to maintain that equipment, whether it's replacing worn parts like fan belts or fan motors, and we need to keep it clean and air will move in that barn a lot better. For more visit Farmscape.Ca.