Nursery

What does this nursery do?

It provides piglets with warm, ready to drink milk on an hourly basis. You define the age and number of piglets, and the nursery does all the rest with its integrated feeding curve. It can feed up to 42 piglets in two pens with separate controls.

What is unique about this nursery?

1. It is very easy to use, all you have to do is enter the age and number of piglets to be fed.
2. Cleaning is child’s play and can be done in no time at all.
3. You can feed one or, optionally, two piglet pens using the integrated feeding curve.
4. Every dosing process is followed by a flushing process.
5. The nursery features a warm water boiler and a water pressure valve.
6. The stainless steel feeding trough was specially designed for this nursery.
7. Each piglet has its own feeding place.
8. The piglets have eye contact with each other during feeding.
9. The milk powder container has a capacity of 7 litres.
10. In the event of a power outage the system will store the current data and automatically resume operation when power is restored.

Initial start-up of the nursery

Please make sure that the following conditions are met:

1. Provide water supply
2. Install the screw conveyor in the storage container
3. Take care you route the hose between the nurse and the feeding troughs tautly to avoid sagging.
4. Make sure that there is no air in the water supply and in the nursery’s water container. You can check this by enabling the nursery, disabling the piglet pens and pressing and holding the enter key. After about six seconds the solenoid valve opens to let water into the storage container. The process must be maintained until there is a continuous swirl of water flowing through the mixing head. Then stop pressing the enter key to close the solenoid valve immediately.
5. Fill the storage container with milk powder
6. Level out the feeding troughs in the piglet pens.

Setting the parameters

To start up the nursery you have to set two parameters: “Age of piglets” and “Number of piglets”. You can do this by using the menu button and the two arrow keys. Use the menu button to select the respective parameter. The individual menu items will then be indicated by green signal lamps, e.g. the “Age of piglets – Pen 1”. Proceed by setting the corresponding value with the arrow key and confirm with enter. The value is then saved. Once the age and number of piglets has been stored for the respective pen, the nursery will start operation. This is indicated by the pilot lamp “Pen 1” or “Pen 2”.

Check your entries

To check your entries press the menu button. The individual menu items will then flash, and simultaneously, the set values will appear on the display.

Test run

Select the menu item “Test run” and confirm with enter to switch on the mixer motor, screw feeder and valve. If you stop pressing the enter key, the test run will be completed with a flushing process of 4 seconds. The display shows the remaining time until the next feeding cycle begins. Please note that the water must be warm for the test run, otherwise the milk powder won’t dissolve properly in the mixing unit.

Indication of the cycle time

When you select the menu item “Test run” the system will automatically show the remaining time in seconds until the next feeding cycle begins.

Disabling a piglet pen

To disable a piglet pen set the menu item “Number of piglets” to “0” for that pen and confirm your entry with enter. The pilot lamp for the disabled pen will then go out.
“Enabling a piglet pen” – see section “Setting the parameters”

Stopping the system

When disable the system with the main on/off switch all values set will be cancelled. The nursery is out of operation. If, however, the nursery was put out of operation by a mains power failure or someone accidentally pulling out the mains plug, the values saved before will be stored in an internal data store. Once set up again the nursery will automatically continue operation with the last set values (provided the system was not disabled with the main on/off switch).

Cleaning the nursery

The nursery provides the option to detach the dosing system and the storage container from the base unit by releasing a hinge. You can then disassemble the system into three components: screw feeder, stirrer, storage container (see the exploded assembly drawing attached). Moreover, you can also remove the mixing unit. You do this by rotating the unit clockwise about 30 degrees. The unit then unlocks for cleaning. The silicon hoses have to be removed from the hose valve for cleaning. Please use a damp (not wet) cloth for cleaning. The feeding process includes a dosing and a cleaning phase, with two seconds recovery between the two phases. That means the system is automatically cleaned after each feeding process.

Checking the water flow rate

The water flow rate is set for dosing at 16 millilitres/per second. There’s a simple way to check that. Just restart the system, put the piglet pens out of operation and press and hold the enter key. After about six seconds the valve opens, water flows through the mixing unit and drains off through the hose. If a water bottle with a capacity of 0.75 litres is filled in 46.0 seconds the system is correctly set. Otherwise, open the switch box and readjust the flow regulator. Increase the pressure if the flow rate is too slow, reduce the pressure if the flow rate is too high. The flow rate should be checked once a year. The system is insensitive to pressure fluctuations in the water supply.

Maintaining the nursery

Please make sure on a regular basis that the hose connections inside the nursery are in perfect state. The supply hoses between the nursery and the feeding trough(s) should be regularly cleaned with the brush that is supplied with each unit. The filter on the water connection should be kept clean as well.
Am Wasseranschluß befindet sich ein Filter, das ebenfalls sauber gehalten werden sollte.

Taking the bulk density into account

The market offers various types of milk powder. You can basically use any type for this nursery. The milk powders can have different bulk densities, though, which makes it necessary to adjust the dosing amount to the bulk weight. This can be done with a reducer to be inserted into the conveyor screw. The reducer can be supplied with the nursery on request. It is only required if the milk powder is extremely fine and dry. For more detailed information please contact the manufacturer.

Setting the water temperature

The nursery incorporates a boiler with a thermostat attached to it. The thermostat can be used to set the water temperature, which will very much depend on the type of milk powder you have. The instruction leaflet of the milk powder normally contains information about at what temperature the powder ought to be mixed. In most cases the temperature will be somewhere between 40°C and 45°C.

C A U T I O N:

The feeding trough should be emptied by the piglets within 30 seconds after dosing is complete. If there is still milk in the trough, the number of piglets should be reduced. The integrated feeding curve (see attached diagram) is intended as a guide. You can adjust it depending on how the piglets are thriving. Please do keep an eye on their development, it is the only way to ensure they are optimally fed. It is recommendable to set only half the amount of piglets on the first day so the piglets can get used to the new milk.

Some tips on how to select the piglets to be fed in the nursery

After you have set up the nursery the question comes up as to which piglets should be fed in the nursery. In our experience it is best practice to place a whole litter of piglets from the sow into the nursery and then put together a new group of piglets (including weak animals where applicable) and attach them to the sow’s teats. The reason behind is that the piglets coming from the sow already know each other, so there won’t be any ranking fights, the hierarchy has already been settled. The prevention of unnecessary ranking fights at the feeding trough facilitates breeding in the nursery. The newly composed group of piglets is better off in the sow’s environment and more familiar with the sow’s teats than with a feeding trough.
Most milk powders are made a bit sour to reduce the risk of diarrhoea. As a result, piglets accustomed to breast milk may be a bit reluctant at first about accepting the milk replacer. This should get better after one day.
It is important to closely observe the piglets. If diarrhoea occurs reduce the amount of feed by reducing the number of piglets set for the respective pen. The trough should be emptied about 30 seconds after the dosing process is complete. As piglet groups will vary in their behaviour and state of development, it is impossible to use an “across-the-board” approach for the feeding curve. The feeding curve programmed in the nursery is an average based on experience values. When the piglets are about 10 days old, they should be offered some dry feed in a tray for them to get used to the dry feed as well.