Raising Pigs in Summer: Never Pour Cold Water on Pigs

In summer, when the temperature is high, pigs often pant heavily from the heat. Some farmers, worried that the pigs will fall ill from the heat, pour cold water over them, hoping to cool them down and make them more comfortable, not realizing that this does more harm than good.

Pigs pant from the heat because they do not sweat efficiently, so the heat in their bodies cannot be released for the time being. If cold water is poured on a pig at this point, the intense cold stimulation causes the sweat pores all over the pig's body to contract sharply, blocking the release of body heat, and the body temperature instead rises abruptly. In mild cases this causes high fever and lung inflammation; in severe cases it can lead to the pig's death. Therefore, in the height of summer, never use the method of pouring cold water over pigs to cool them down. If the weather is hot and the pigs really need to be cooled and relieved of the heat, you can drive them to a well-ventilated, shady place and then sprinkle some cold water on the ground (preferably clean concrete ground), letting the pigs lie quietly there to rest; or you can dig a pit inside the pigpen and fill it with cool well water for the pigs to "wallow in the mud."