The importance of clean drinking water is being increasingly recognized. At Karel van Deursen of Heusden (municipality of Asten), it has a positive effect on the sows' milk yield and the growth of the fattening pigs. 'It just runs easier now,' says the pig farmer.
Since November 2018, Van Deursen has been disinfecting the drinking water with Watter. Before that, he used several other products to improve water quality; germ counts and yeasts, among other things, were too high."But those use chemicals and I wanted to get rid of that.
Van Deursen visited a number of colleagues who had been using Watter for some time. What he saw appealed to him. 'The machine is an investment, but the running costs are low. If I write off the machine in five years, all costs come out to 30 cents per piglet.' Water quality was measured when the machine was installed and again six weeks later.
Effect is seen everywhere
Van Deursen sees the effect of clean drinking water in all animal groups. In the meat pigs, he saw 80 grams better growth per animal per day in the first half of this year than in the same period last year. With the sows, Van Deursen has been weaning half a piglet per litter extra per sow for the last six months.
When asked if this can only be attributed to water quality, the pig farmer replies that this is always difficult to substantiate. 'But because the water is clean, the animal doesn't have to expend energy fighting germs. It just runs easier now and numerically that comes out.'