Swine Boss stainless steel nipple drinker flat piglet

Details

Young pigs are not small versions of finishers when it comes to water. They have less jaw strength, a smaller mouth, and no idea what a nipple drinker is until they work it out, and a valve built for a grower is often too stiff and too fast for them. A piglet nipple has a lighter action and a lower flow rate, so a pig that bites it gets water rather than a faceful of pressure — which is how they learn to keep coming back. The flat-face design gives a small pig something square to push against, and it takes rooting and chewing better than a protruding stem does. Flow rate is the number that matters most: too slow and pigs cannot drink enough in the time they are willing to stand there, too fast and most of your water goes down the slat. Match it to the age group and check the pressure at the drinker, not at the pump — long runs and small lines drop more than people expect. Mounting height and angle do as much for intake as the valve itself. Set it at about shoulder height for the smallest pigs in the pen and angle it slightly downward, and be prepared to move it as they grow. A drinker a pig has to reach up for is a drinker a pig uses less. Check the thread size against your existing lines before ordering so you are not hunting adapters. Flush new lines before pigs are on them, and check each drinker by hand at least weekly — a stuck valve either floods the pen or quietly leaves a pen of pigs short of water, and neither shows up until it has cost you gain.