On the contrary, there are no specific problems for the employment of manure. This is certainly a consequence of its favourable contribution to the improvement of the land fertility, and also to the impossibility that fortuitous events could lead to run-off, percolation, or consistent environmental inconveniences. This is the main reason why litters are enjoying a great favour within piggeries, even if they had been abandoned mainly as a consequence of consistent management expenses, related to the employment of straw as well as of labour. The ‘new’ piggery solutions, studied for the different farming sectors, guarantee farmers the chance to overcome these inconveniences and to resort to them even within specialized large-sized farming.

In this latter type of farming, the higher costs related to the employment of litter and labour are certainly counterbalanced by appreciable savings as a result of the lower thermal requirements of the animals which, if sheltered on litter, have lower critical temperatures than the minimum ones.

The oxidative processes, which take place on the litter, offer animals a warm bed, even to piglets just weaned, without being obliged to make use of any artificial heating system. Nowadays, it is possible to resort to widely proven solutions for the gestation, delivery, weaning, rearing and fattening sectors.

OUTDOOR FARMING
The increased sensibility of people towards animals’ comfort and everything bearing the definition of ‘natural’, together with the opportunity to go into a farming by means of quite low investments in equipment and plants, has aroused a growing interest in outdoor farming even in our country. The success of this type of farming is related to a sufficient availability of land, with good exposure and ideal drainage, together with the employment of equipment capable of assuring both the protection of animals from atmospheric agents and an easy execution of the different tending and control operations.