The Answer to how often you clean a nursery pig pen is simple and straightforward
Maintaining a schedule that generally includes a thorough cleaning session for your nursery pig pen is important. The simple answer is this: Every time a new batch of nursery pigs are brought in, the pen must be cleaned prior to their introduction. Of course, just because that answer is straightforward and simple, doesn’t mean your mileage might not vary.
For the purposes of this article is heavily dependent on the cycle with which you are moving pigs on from the nursery. Generally, this means you’ll ensure that the nursery is clean at the time you move pigs on from the nursery and prior to receiving new pigs into the nursery. Additionally, we produce flooring that can factor into the maintenance and cleaning efforts that may extend the cleaning intervals slightly.
It may also be a better practice to realize improved cleaning efficiency thanks to ADA Enterprises products and allow you to clean less often because they stay cleaner, longer. This lends to improved health and better overall quality of life for you and your animals. Of course you’ll need to determine what works best for your schedules and your animals.
How can you realize an improved cleaning regimen and benefit from the technology and engineering of ADA Enterprises’ products, while also maintaining proper cleaning intervals and standard best practices for animal health? We aim to show you how we can help you accomplish just that, below in the article.
ADA Enterprises makes easy to maintain and easy to clean Nursery Pig Pen Flooring
DuraTrac floors by ADA should be cleaned and disinfected before weaned pigs arrive. Usually this happens at around 3 weeks of age.
When they reach 50-60 pounds, or approximately 9-10 weeks of age (feeder pigs), they are generally moved to a different location. The floors are then cleaned and disinfected again in order to be ready for the next batch of nursery pigs.
This follows along with the concept of cleaning to protect new nursery entrants. Because of the easier maintenance you can clean more frequently if desired.
Actual studies show that certain methods for cleaning are superior from a time and cost perspective
ADA Enterprises makes products that contribute to better cost structures for ancillary but necessary budget line items, like frequent cleaning. We sell a product, as highlighted above, that can lessen the need for chemical agents to effectively clean, or can seriously minimize the amount used and strength needed to achieve the same level of cleaning.
This is further enhanced by the fact that our products, including nursery flooring can be cleaned utilizing hot water pressure washing equipment if you choose to do so.
The initial investment in cleaning equipment may be able to positively contribute to better ROI over the long-term if you determine that hot pressurized water and pre-treatment with soaking agents are part of your desired cleaning protocols.
This article offers some insights into the potential for time and cost savings for such cleaning methodology. But a huge impact can also be felt from the products we sell: encapsulated steel structures which offer proper rigidity and easy maintenance properties to complete a comprehensive package for raised pig pen flooring for nurseries.
Our flooring offers a unique ability to shed feces and urine, quickly be cleaned thanks to the surface treatment of the plastisol coating, and offers quick drainage and drying times.
What is it about ADA Enterprises’ Raised Nursery flooring that makes it so good?
- Rust, mildew and mold resistant coating helps to ensure safe, clean nursery areas
- Open design offers a way to passively evacuate feces and urine
- Strong, stiff modular design offers a stable platform for young animals
- The open design offers ventilation and quick drying times and still doesn’t trap small feet
- No exposed steel means comfortable temperature control and no sharp edges, both of which contribute to healthier, safer animals
- The plastisol coating is easy to clean and can be cleaned with any standard cleaning agent in wide industry use as well as hot water; pressurized systems and steam cleaning equipment
Dura Trac flooring products have the following benefits for a pig operation like we mention this article:
DuraTrac Creep Side floors for swine are generally put in place for newborn piglets in the creep area. When the piglets are weaned at approximately 3 weeks, they can then be moved to the nursery barn and are put on DuraTrac Nursery floors. At around 50-60 pounds they are then moved to a finishing barn. Each nursery introduction interval requires a thorough cleaning.
DuraTrac Nursery floors are strong enough to hold pigs up to 100 pounds each, which means they can perform extended duty in some operations where raised flooring is either a necessity or preferred for larger animals.
Both the Creep Side and the Nursery floors by ADA Enterprises are available in the Clearspan style and the Original style.
Dura Trac Clearspan floors are self-supported floors.
Dura Trac Original floors use the customer’s existing support system.
Why a clean nursery pig pen is essential
While pigs will be pigs, and there is no such thing as a completely clean pig pen, your nursery setup for young pigs does require cleanliness to minimize health concerns in your animals and achieve proper cost structures through high yields, low mortality rates and lessened chances for communicable diseases.
Over the course of even six weeks, you can see that pigs can be affected by diseases and bacteria, especially without raised flooring solutions. This danger can cripple a pig operation because of the potential for widespread sickness, or increased veterinary bills or the need for other safeguards.
Clearly, cleanliness and the utilization of a strong set of best practices can contribute to better return on investment and a profitable operation year after year.
Further, healthier pigs reach market weight faster and with less total expense, generally.
We’ve engineered our products to help facilitate this type of mentality, and our customers report higher yields, better quality of life, and lower long-term operating expenses in part due to their purchase of DuraTrac nursery flooring. Some have had our flooring in place for many years and continue to use it daily without meaningful degradation.
The cleaning efficiency and ease of maintenance which is further enhanced by the modular design philosophy means that our customers can realize better overall returns and healthier, stronger, young pigs that move into bigger pens and pastures on a realistic schedule.
We’d love to show you what we can do to positively impact your young pig operation – we invite you to reach out to us for a quote. Let us assist you in designing a modular, comprehensive approach to a raised flooring facility that can promote healthy, strong pigs that have lower instances of sickness and a premium quality of life. Oh, and by the way, we’d like for you to have a better quality of life too – which is why we prioritize ease of maintenance and make cleaning so easy with our product designs and material selection.
If you’d like to see what we can offer, please have a look at our product catalog for Swine.
We look forward to hearing from you!
