Effect of the warm-bed on the lying behaviour of the weaned piglet in winter

A new type of local heating equipment——the warm-bed was applied in the weaned piglet house. In order to evaluate this equipment, the relationship among the number of the weaned piglets lying in the warm-bed, the piglets' ages and the indoor aerial temperature was discussed. The lying behaviour of the weaned piglets was observed and recorded at 8:00, 14:00, 20:00 and 24:00 everyday during the experiment. The indoor and outdoor air temperatures were measured every 5 min. The results showed that when the average indoor temperature was 13.0℃, the average air temperatures inside the warm-bed with curtain and without curtain were 28.6℃ and 17.9℃ respectively. When the indoor air temperature was lower than 9.9℃ and the weaned piglets were less 48-day-old, more than 98.9% piglets chose the warm-bed with curtain to lie. With the growth of piglets, the proportion of the weaned piglets lying in the warm-bed with curtain decreased from 98.9%～83.3% to 35.6%～54.1%; the proportion of the weaned piglets lying in warm-bed without curtain increased from 15.3% to 41.1%.