Abstract
In farrowing houses, lower temperatures are needed for the sow than for the piglets. One frequently used way toachieve this is to maintain a low room air temperature that is suitable for the sow and to provide a covered creep area forthe piglets. The creep area may be covered in different ways, but only limited information is found in the literature on thespecific thermal consequences of different cover configurations.<br><br>In order to provide some of the missing information, a number of experiments were conducted with a 0.6 m by 1.0 m creeparea surrounded by 10 different cover configurations. A 140 W electric floorheating panel with dimensions equal to the creepfloor area was used to simulate the sensible heat loss from a litter of piglets. An open nest consisting of the floorheating panelwith no cover was used as control treatment. The experiments contained three groups of cover configurations: only roof overthe creep area, only walls around the creep area, and different combinations of roof and walls. The creep was placed in adraftfree room, where the room air temperature was maintained at 21C. Air and blackglobe temperatures were measured0.10 m above the floor panel in nine horizontal positions.<br><br>The air temperature rise in the creep was small. In the open nest an average temperature rise of 1.5C was found. Coveringthe nest with only a roof or only three walls resulted in a temperature rise of about 2C. The temperature rise for the creepwith three walls and curtain (but no roof) was 3.3C. All configurations with roof and three walls gave an average temperaturerise that was significantly higher than the open nest. With an open access front, a temperature rise in the order of 3 to 4Cwas achieved. By protecting the entrance to the creep area by a curtain an air temperature rise of 8.6C was achieved.<br><br>For most cover configurations the blackglobe temperature rise was approximately 2C higher than the air temperaturerise. For a creep area covered with walls, roof and curtain, the highest blackglobe temperature rise observed was 10C.
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