FLOORS IN ARKS - ARE THEY NECESSARY?
Whilst researching all the different manufacturers of huts for the 'useful links' section, I noticed that practically all of the manufacturers who sell specifically to the smallholder sector put a floor in their arcs and make a big feature of it in their marketing whereas the manufacturers selling to commercial pig farmers do not.
Why is this? Because we source from commercial farms, we rarely sell huts with floors and there are several reasons why they do not use floors. Firstly, due to the numbers involved, commercial herds MUST be sited on land of the correct soil type. It is essential that it is free draining so water drains away quickly and the whole site does not degenerate into a mudbath in winter. Having had experience of sites on less than ideal land, men and machines soon become bogged down in a sea of mud, the land becomes rutted and there can certainly be welfare issues for the pigs. This is the reason that outdoor pig keeping tends to be concentrated in areas such as East Anglia where conditions are suitable. If units are sited on the correct land, most of the reasons for having floors do not apply. The beds do not get damp as water drains away even in the most prolonged wet period and, as the pigs should be bedded with plenty of straw anyway, they should be laying on that not the floor. Secondly, floors make the huts heavy and difficult to clean out. I appreciate some designs have removable floors which will help, but the simplest and easiest way to freshen up the bed is to move the hut to a new area in your paddock with fresh straw and leave the old one where it is. It certainly helps disease build-up, I used to burn the old beds to aid this process and spray the inside of the huts with disinfectant every time I moved them. With arks with floors, this is far more labourious.
In fairness to the manufacturers selling huts with floors, they would not do it if there was no demand. In some people's understandable eagerness to become pig keepers, they sometimes do not think clearly enough about whether they have a big enough area for the pigs or have the right land. In the warmer months, when everything dries out quicker, the pigs will be fine but in winter they will be problems. Floors will help inside the hut but do nothing about the sea of mud around the ark which the pigs need to go through to get to their food and water. It is not fair on the pigs and in these instances people would perhaps be better off fattening some pigs over the Spring, Summer and early Autumn and giving themselves and their land a break in the colder, wetter months. A good rule of thumb to remember regarding stocking densities is to have 6-8 sows or equivalent per acre.
Floors obviously also add to the cost of setting up your unit. With our huts, if customers are absolutely adamant that they must have a floor, I recommend them putting a sheet of 8 feet by 4 feet plywood under the arc. This should cost no more than £20 and works just a well as an integrated floor.
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