Cleaning a pig pen

With two porkers coming inside for a week prior to slaughter, the Other Half and I had to get their pen in the byre cleaned and disinfected so they could move in. The pen had already been mucked out and cleaned when the last pigs moved out a month ago, but since then the wind has blown straw, leaves and dirt in while birds have left deposits scattered around. There were also a few rat droppings, despite there being baits laid on the opposite of this wall and in the hayshed at the opposite end of the byre. The first job was to thoroughly wet the floor and walls, then scrub them clean with heavy duty detergent.

The detergent and scrubbing lifts most of the dirt, but there’s always some that’s hard to shift and this is blasted clear with the pressure washer. After a further scrubbing, the walls and floors are rinsed out. It’s important to do this, not just to remove the dirt, but also to avoid chemical reactions between the detergent and the disinfectant. The usual recommendation is to use an agricultural detergent with degreasing agents that can cut through fats and scurf. However, our agricultural merchant recommended we use industrial Domestos instead — it’s intended for cleaning toilet blocks and is much, much cheaper than the agricultural equivalents.

The rinse water is cleared with a squeegee, leaving the floor damp but not overly wet — which would dilute the disinfectant.

We prefer to use Virkon S as our disinfectant because, while still an irritant, it’s one of the least hazardous and least difficult ones to mix and use. It comes in powder form so there’s less danger of contaminating spills and I don’t need much protective gear. One of the other disinfectants we use from time to time, when we haven’t the money for Virkon S, is a very strong liquid alkali that requires heavy rubber gauntlets, rubberised overalls, safety glasses and a great deal of care. I’ve twice had gloves split while handling it, with the resulting small splashes of alkali causing chemical burns in the few seconds it took to strip the gloves off and immerse my hand in a bucket of water (always to hand when handling this stuff, along with vinegar to neutralise it).

It takes 10 litres of Virkin S, properly diluted for standard orders, to thoroughly damp down the walls with disinfectant. One day I’ll have the time and money to re-render the walls, which will halve the amount of disinfectant needed and make cleaning easier, but other things on the to-do list have a higher priority.

Particular attention is paid to the drinker and feeder, the latter is normally to the right but has been unbolted and removed for cleaning. The drinker is dismantled, scrubbed, rinse and finally disinfected in every nook and cranny.

A 10-litre bucket of Virkon S is then used to disinfect the floor. It’s worked into every corner and then the byre is left for 15-20 minutes while the disinfectant does its job. After a final rinse and squeegee, the pen is just about ready for the pigs.

We have a four-bay feeder that’s very useful for feeding porkers when there’s a bit of size mismatch or when one pig is a bully. Outside, the bigger or bullying pig often runs back and forth between the feed bowls, even if spread well apart, to drive off the smaller, weaker pig or pigs. But when we use the feeder, neither pig can see the other and they almost invariably spend all their time munching at one bay. As with the drinker, the feeder has to be thoroughly scrubbed, rinsed and disinfected before going back in the pen. (Note: It is possible to get outdoor bay-type feeders with waterproof lids, but they’re rather expensive so we just bring the pigs inside for now.)

The final cleaning task, apart from packing all the cleaning equipment up, is to clean the footbath and refill it with disinfectant. In fact, this is a job that has to be done at least once a week as this doorway is the division between the animal side and the non-animal sides of the croft. It’s also not the last job before the pigs are brought in. After lunch, we had to straw up the pen, bolt the feeder back in, set up the temporary races, and only then move the pigs. It’s a lot more work than people realise to move two pigs from a field to a pen.

- - - - -

Note: Chronologically, the events in this post came before Nine Days To Go and Saying Goodbye To The Kids.