What Livestock Flooring is Best for Pigs?
Flooring is one of the most important decisions that you’ll need to make for your pig farm. Whether you’re looking for flooring for your farrowing or nursing barn you want to make a flooring decision that is affordable, long-lasting, and will result in healthy pigs and happy employees.
Why is Quality Swine Flooring Important?
Pigs can be hard on flooring, which is why investing in durable flooring is essential. Quality flooring will save you money by keeping your pigs free of injury and illness and reducing strain on employees as well. Here are just a few of the reasons that high-quality plastisol coated pig flooring is a wise choice for your operation:
Keep Pigs Healthier
The healthier your pigs, the fewer animals you will lose due to injury or illness and the faster swine will reach weaning and market weights. Floors that are easy to clean reduce the growth of bacteria, which means pigs are less likely to get sick. Sturdy flooring with good traction prevents pigs from slipping and injuring themselves, so they are more likely to stay in good condition.
Maintain Comfortable Temperatures for Pigs
Dura Trac Clearspan Creep Side flooring has a durable cast iron center to keep the sow cool and comfortable, while the piglet flooring keeps little bodies warm. This is important not only for the health and comfort of the sow and piglets, but also because piglets reach weaning weight faster when they are not wasting energy shivering in the cold. Dura Trac nursery floors keep young pigs clean, dry, nad comfortable, which helps them to reach market weight eariler.
If you need even more heat for a very cold climate, the flooring can also be modified with heat plates or recessed for heat mats to lay flush with the floor. Heat lamps are also safe to use over Dura Trac flooring.
Easy-to-Clean Floors Keep Pigs Healthy and Employees Happy
Your pigs will be healthier and more comfortable if their flooring is clean and dry. Your employees will be happier if cleaning out the pig stalls is an easy, convenient process.
Quality Dura Trac plastisol coated expanded metal floors have diamond-shaped openings that are narrower at the surface level, which encourages feces to flow down onto the floor beneath. You’ll find that your employees can finish their sanitation tasks more quickly and that your facility remains cleaner overall.
Quality Swine Flooring Will Save You Money in Floor Replacement and Maintenance
The best pig flooring can hold up to this demanding environment. Dura Trac metal floors are completely plastisol coated, so you won’t have to worry about rust as the years go by. At the same time, this heavy-duty flooring will hold up to even continuous impact without needing frequent replacement.
Issues That Can Occur With Poor Quality Swine Flooring
-
Difficult installation. Flooring that is not designed well can be difficult to install, which will increase your startup costs and result in significant overhead right from the beginning.
-
Expensive maintenance. Flooring that can’t hold up to the demanding environment of a pig farm will need to be repaired and frequently replaced, which is expensive and labor-intensive.
-
Reduced weaning weights. Piglets that are shivering on a cold floor waste energy staying warm, rather than converting their feed into pounds, which reduces weaning weights.
-
Reduced market weights. Pigs that are stressed by cold floors, struggling to keep their footing on poor traction, and experience floor related injuries will not reach market weight as quickly, which means lost income for you.
-
Sickness and injury. Injuries due to poor traction can quickly result in infected cuts with insufficient cleaning, so flooring that has great traction and is easy to clean is essential.
Other Flooring Options Pros and Cons
When you are considering the varieties of swine flooring available to you, it is beneficial to note the pros and cons of different options.
Fully slatted plastic flooring has the advantages of great ventilation and quick-drying, but because it doesn’t provide as good of traction as Dura Trac floors, pigs may be more likely to have abrasions and bruises from slipping.
Furthermore, pigs will be stressed and expend unnecessary energy as they struggle to keep their footing. There are limited customization options in this flooring, requiring you to adapt your facility to the floor, rather than the other way around.
Partially slatted flooring doesn’t provide great ventilation and it can be a real challenge to keep clean. Furthermore, it is slow-drying, cold, and uncomfortable, which will not only result in stressed pigs, but will also reduce weaning and market timeframes.
Floors made entirely of concrete are less expensive and can last a long time, but they are difficult to clean, have very poor drainage, and take a long time to dry. Not only is this frustrating for the employees doing the cleaning, but it also creates a slippery, damp environment which can contribute to illness and injury. Furthermore, concrete flooring will absorb urine, which will make your pig farm a very unpleasant place to work.
Why Consider Dura Trac Floors
Dura Trac floors eliminate the downsides of other floor options while providing superior ventilation, traction, and ease of cleaning. These floors can be ordered to your exact size specifications, enabling you to match the floors to your facility, not the other way around.
Choose built-in supports with the Dura Trac models or use your own supports to provide elevation your way. You’ll be amazed by how easy and quick installation is.
These floors are also easy to clean. Most of the fecal matter falls through to the floor below, and both levels are easy to clean with modern techniques. Superb traction and quick-drying means that abrasions and bruises are unlikely.
Your pigs will stay comfortable at room temperature. No exposed steel or sharp edges reduces injury to pigs and also means that these floors last a long time.
Dura Trac floors won’t perpetuate flame or conduct electricity, keeping your pigs and workers safer. Choose from many customizations to meet your needs, such as heat plates, mounting tabs, and solid plates.
Order Your Custom Dura Trac Floors
Superb flooring at a reasonable price for your pig farm is just a phone call away. Contact our sales department at 800-533-6033 to get a custom quote for your needs.