Abstract
ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to measure the water disappearance in the drinker and the pattern of daily water intake and estimate the amount of water wasted in pig production. The study will also generate information about the daily behaviour of water intake of pigs in the growing and finishing phases. Sixty male pigs with an average initial weight of 44.43 kg subjected to immunocastration were used. Animals received feed and water ad libitum. The animal-performance data, temperature [...]
Highlights
Water use in agricultural production corresponds to a significant portion of the water consumed in the world (Hoekstra and Mekonnen, 2012)
The results demonstrated an increasing pattern during the animal housing period in water disappearance (WD) that is proportional to dry matter intake and body weight, and the water wasted represents a significant portion of WD
The water amount needed for an animal with an 83.60 kg body weight to maintain an adequate water balance was 6.30 L/pig, and the volume of water waste represented about 29.07% of the total water flow (2.32 L/pig), resulting in 5.66 L/pig of water that is ingested by the animal
Summary
Water use in agricultural production corresponds to a significant portion of the water consumed in the world (Hoekstra and Mekonnen, 2012). Most of the water used is designated for animal watering and for cleaning activities that surround the growing-finishing pig production unit; this results in strong economic (generate more production costs) and environmental impact (generate more waste volume) when there is no conscientious use of this resource. There are studies that have evaluated the water intake of growing-finishing pigs (Li et al, 2005; Andersen et al, 2014; Tavares et al, 2014; Maselyne et al, 2016), the interaction of water disappearance with environmental variables and nutrient intake in natural conditions has still not been adequately explored. The objective of this study was to measure the disappearance and pattern of water intake, estimate water wasted, and generate information about the daily behaviour of water intake of pigs in the growing and finishing phases
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