Placing the pad in your Farrowing room

The heat pad must be securily fixed to the farrowing room flooring and the cable and gland protected from damage. The optimum position is 3" (7.5 cm) in from the side of the pen division, allowing the piglets to lie between the pad and the division, well away from the sow. Pads can be positioned adjacent to the division if space is restricted. Beware do not possition the pad too close to the partition in such a way that a pigglet can get stuck on its back unable to turn over.

Pad dynamics with pig litters explained

The piglets within any litter will vary in size and in feed intake; thus any system of heating must take into account the different heat requirements of each individual piglet. There is also a difference in requirements when the piglets are fed or just waiting for the sow to suckle them (sows suckle their piglets approx. once every 50 minutes).

An empty, hungry piglet requires more heat than the same full-bellied piglet. Thus, any system of heating must be capable of coping with all these different requirements without driving the piglet over under the sow. Piglets with a low heat requirement will lie in the gap between the division board and the pad or at the edge of the pad with their heads on it like a pillow. Piglets with a high heat requirement (lighter weight piglets or hungry empty piglets) will lie totally on the pad.

Our extensive research has shown that by positioning the JODEL heat pad correctly it provides a much larger functional area than just its surface area and also allows the piglets a choice of different comfort zones to suit their individual body requirements at different times during the day.