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Title: Heat and moisture production of growing-finishing gilts as affected by environmental temperature

Author
item Brown-Brandl, Tami
item Nienaber, John
item Eigenberg, Roger
item XIN, HONGWEI - Iowa State University

Submitted to: ASABE Annual International Meeting
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/5/2011
Publication Date: 8/7/2011
Citation: Brown Brandl, T.M., Nienaber, J.A., Eigenberg, R.A., Xin, H. 2011. Heat and moisture production of growing-finishing gilts as affected by environmental temperature. In: Proceedings American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Annual International Meeting, August 7-10, 2011, Louisville, Kentucky. Paper No. 1111183.

Interpretive Summary: Heat and moisture production (HMP) are critical information for sizing ventilation equipment like heaters and fans. Those values were adopted as standards for swine production buildings by several professional organizations. However, the original standards were based on measurements that were made 30 to 50 years ago. Modern swine, which are more lean, and modern feeding programs have caused changes in both heat and moisture production of swine. This paper presents the results of a study on gilts during a normal period of growth at a wide variety of environmental temperatures within a facility. It was determined that the heat production (HP) from the gilts was slightly lower than recent results from barrows. It was also determined that the HP from the gilts exceeded the HP reported in the standards by 16%.

Technical Abstract: Heat and moisture production (HMP) values are used to size ventilation fans in animal housing. The HMP values that are currently published in the ASABE (American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers) standards were from data collected in the early 1950. This study is one of a series of studies being conducted to update the HMP values for the ASABE and ASHRAE (American Society of Heating Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers) standards. This study focused on the HMP measurements on growing gilts in the weight range of 60 to 120 kg over a temperature range 16 to 32°C. Thirty gilts selected on the basis of weight and health status were placed in one of five environmental chambers and in one of six pens in each chamber. Heat production rate (HP) was determined using indirect calorimetry methods, after the animals were acclimated for 2 weeks to a particular temperature. Total HP of the gilts averaged 16.5% higher than the standards. This difference was lower than that observed in a previous study with barrows (27.5% higher than the standards on average). The dynamic HP shows that during the light hours HP averaged 5% higher but was up to 21% higher as compared to dark hours. Results on nursery age animals will be reported in a companion study.