A water mister miracle!!!

[RedHogs]

We have had 4-5 days this week over 90 degrees and my shoats that had been eating 200-225 lbs a day were eating about 130-140 lbs a day monday through thursday.

I installed a water mister in the loafing barn, they are on about 2 acres of pasture. I enclosed more of the barn with some new roofing tin and added 12misting heads at 1.1 gph. 6 are on for 12 hours a day and the other 6 are on for the hottest middle 6 hours... The first day of misting they ate the bin out....all 250 lbs and they attacked the bin when i filled it up just a few minutes ago.

I think this my first addition to the hoop barns, even the pastured hogs are showing real feed increses when their daytimes body temps are brought down.

[agmantoo]

redhogs,
you may already know this.....to get the most from a mister the water cannot be allowed to collect and remain on the floor or the animals. the most cooling is realized as the surface area become damp and the water stopped until evaporation occurs and then restarted. the evaporation is what carries the heat away. if the area is permitted to get wet and stay wet. the heat will just build in the water and remain. an electronics technician can use components from a clothes dryer sensor, a thermostat and some relays to build you a device to control a solenoid valve that will turn the water on and off at the desirable times delivering the greatest yield in comfort.

[RedHogs]

I have them on a 4 stage irrigation timer now, with what i'm seeing, I think an investment into a humidity unit would be well worth it.... I'm still at an experimental level now..... They have about a 1/4 acre pond and still weren't eating right.....I think the lack of shade near and around the pond was the problem.

[Rogo]

Misters are popular here for all species of livestock. Most critters roam free; too hot to enclose them in a building. Loafing sheds - 3 sides and a roof - are available if the critters want to get out of the weather. It's not unusual to see misters along fencelines.

Altho our humidity is low, around 10%, our reported high temp today was
110 degrees. They report the shade temp. Add 10 to 15 degrees for the sun temp.

[MariaAZ]

We used a mister with our rabbits today, dropped the temps near ground level under the tree from 103 to 83 in less than 1/2 hour.