The Role of Water in Limiting Performance
By Dr. Mike Brumm, Brumm Swine Consultancy, Inc.
While most producers and care-givers of growing pigs recognize the goal of ad libitum feed access (and resulting rapid daily gain), it’s easy to forget that limiting water availability can end up limiting ad lib feed intake and average daily gain.
Water for the growing pig can come from both drinkers located in the pen and in the feed. Assuming a typical corn-soy based diet contains 12% moisture (the common standard), a pig consuming 5 pounds of feed a day takes in 0.6 lb of water per day. At 8.3 pounds/gallon, this is 0.07 gallon – a rather insignificant amount relative to the needs of the pig.
For facilities with gate-mounted nipple drinkers, the estimated daily drinking water usage for the grow-finish period (50 pounds to slaughter) is 1.5 gal/pig/day. If bowl drinkers, wet/dry feeders or tube feeders are used, the estimated usage is less (1.0 gal/pig/day) because of reduced waste associated with common drinking and playing activities at nipple drinkers. For wean-finish barns with bowl drinkers, water usage for the entire wean-finish period is closer to 0.8 gal/pig/day.
Another way to calculate the daily drinking water need of the pig is to use the water:feed ratio. This is the pounds of drinking water per pound of dry feed. In controlled studies, 40-pound pigs given drinking water access via gate-mounted nipple drinkers had ratios of approximately 3.5:1. On the other hand, pigs on wet/dry feeders where the only water access was the nipple drinker in the feeder bowl had ratios of 1.50:1 at 200 pounds. In general, the ratio of water to feed declines as pigs grow, regardless of the type of drinker provided when feed is provided ad libitum.
If you use a drinker with minimal wastage such as a bowl drinker, a wean-finish pig will consume close to 150 gallons of water. If we include the drinking water usage of the breeding herd, total drinking water usage per market pig sold to slaughter is around 235 gallons.
When plotted on a daily basis, drinking water usage tends to plateau when pigs weigh approximately 180 pounds. This plateauing is due to the changing composition of growth by the pig. The deposition of lean by the growing pig requires large amounts of water, since the composition of lean includes a large amount of water. However, the deposition of fat requires minimal water because carcass fat contains almost no water. Depending on the genetics, many pigs begin increasing fat deposition with a corresponding plateauing or even slowing of lean deposition somewhere around 200 pounds. This explains in part why drinking water needs for finishing pigs plateau.
However, the growing pig doesn’t exist by drinking an ‘average’ amount of water during each 24 hour day. Instead, drinking water needs are closely related to feed consumption. In thermal-neutral conditions, both feed and water usage generally begin increasing around 6 am in the morning, with a mid-morning peak around 10 am, followed by the days peak in disappearance at 2-3 pm. By 6 pm, both feed and water intake have returned to a relatively low level. There is very little feed or water intake during the night. Drinking water disappearance, and by association feed disappearance, is minimal during late evening and early morning hours.
If pigs are grown to slaughter in warm conditions (summer conditions in much of the upper Midwest), these patterns change. Feed and water intake now begins at approximately 4 am, with the morning peak at 8-9 am. This morning peak is followed by a mid-day decline in feed and water disappearance, with a resumption in intake in the early evening hours. Even in these conditions, there is limited drinking water usage during late evening or early morning hours.
Figure 1.Typical 24 hour patterns of drinking water usage – 1200 head wean-finish room 4 months after weaning using wet/dry feeders. Data courtesy www.dicamusa.com.
Dr. Mike Brumm is the owner of Brumm Swine Consultancy, Inc. of North Mankato, Minnesota. He was previously a professor at the University of Nebraska. Dr. Brumm's areas of expertise include management and housing of the growing pig, industry issues including production networks, contracts, cost of production and record systems.
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