Abstract: Floor Plate with Slatted Flooring

Type and Average of Pigs on the Farm

The farm maintains approximately 960 grower-finishers.

Farming System

Intensive production system.

Description and Evaluation of the Good Practice

This good practice introduces a removable floor plate that creates an area of solid flooring within a pen with fully slatted flooring. The plate can host enrichment such as straw, toys and water, and in summer the farmer creates a small wallow by spraying water onto it through the sprinkling system, helping pigs to thermoregulate. The plate is permanently fastened to the slatted floor and is not removed during cleaning between batches. It can be installed in any existing stable without rebuilding; if changes were made, the farmer would position it horizontally rather than diagonally, as the angle provides no additional benefit. From arrival, pens are kept dry and warm and enriched with sisal ropes, chains, a ball, fresh straw and coarse feed, helping pigs settle and establish their hierarchy calmly.

Farm Context

• Pigs: Pigs are mixed on arrival at 30 kg, encouraging them to socialise and establish a hierarchy. The horseshoe-shaped pen lets pigs stand on opposite sides of the feeding station and move away from pen mates instead of being forced into conflict. A feed combination including magnesium is given at the start to help calm the pigs.
• Environmental Enrichment: The floor plate sits at the end of the pen under artificial lighting as a play area, with straw, a ball and toys placed on it. Pigs also receive automatic coarse feed several times a day, made up of 85% spelt hulls, 15% rolled oats and 0.5% cracked corn.
• Housing and Management Characteristics: Space available is 1 m²/pig from 30–115 kg. The flooring is fully slatted, with the floor plate providing the solid area. Straw is provided twice daily for the first 7–10 days after arrival, roughly a handful per pen, and afterwards only as needed.
• Management Practices: If a pig is bitten or biting, it receives extra enrichment and an additional long trough with green pellets, cracked corn, magnesium, humic acid and chopped straw. Wound treatment is applied to bitten tails 2–3 times a day as needed. If biting persists, the biting pig is identified by spraying the bitten tail and moved to a smaller pen.

Economic Analysis

The removable floor plate is inexpensive and requires no rebuilding, so the economic impact of this practice is very low. The farm achieves a daily gain of around 1,000 g/day, 3 feed units per kg gain, and a meat percentage of 58%.

Environmental Analysis

As the floor plate sits on top of the slatted floor, the pen retains its slurry system across the full pen area, so it remains dry and clean at all times. This makes the floor plate a good solution for farms without solid flooring.

Replicable Benefits and Relevance for Other EU Countries

This practice is easy to implement in other EU countries, as it can be added to existing stables without rebuilding. For countries without regulations on the minimum amount of solid flooring, it provides a practical way to create an area where straw or other manipulable enrichment can be placed.