Temperature-dependent consumption of drinking water in piglet rearing

•Piglets differentiated between different drinking water temperatures.•In 90% of cases, the piglets preferred the cold water.•There was a significant effect of the barn temperature on the preferred temperature of water consumed by piglets.

This study focussed on examining the temperature-specific consumption of drinking water by piglets. To this end, a drinking trough system was developed to offer the animals water at three different temperatures (warm (+10 °C then barn temperature), barn temperature (actual barn temperature) and cold (−10 °C then barn temperature)). The findings showed that the piglets did choose water at different temperatures when the barn temperature was high or low. In 90% of cases the piglets preferred the cold water. There was a significant (p ≤ 0.05) effect on water consumption at the individual troughs when the barn temperature changed. As the barn temperature rose, consumption increased at the cold water and decreased at the warm water trough. It is suggested that the climate control technology (heating and cooling) can be regulated directly based on the water consumption response signals from the piglets.