Abstract
This research devoted to develop an incubator that could make an optimum environment condition according to days of age for suckling pigs to decrease the mortality and improve the rate of the weight gain of the suckling pigs. Results obtained from this research summarized as follows: 1. Several experiments were carried out at the farm to find the effect of incubator developed for suckling pigs on weight gain by season. The total average gain of the weight of the treatment group was around 6∼22kg, and 6∼23kg higher than control group at the first experiment (April 19), at the second (July 30), and at the third (September 23), year of 2000 experiment, respectively. There were no significant differences ($\alpha$=5%) of the total weight gain among treatment groups. There was, however, a significant difference ($\alpha$=5%) of the total weight gain between the control and treatment groups and it was considered to be that the incubator had efficiency for weight gain of the suckling pigs. 2. The survival rate of the control group was 87% in the total sample number of 92, meanwhile, which of the experiment group was 98% in the total sample number of 50 suckling pigs. 3. Finally, economic analysis was executed for suckling pigs based on a farm size of breeding 500 sows. The results showed that a break-even point was around 9 months and the annual profit of ￦52,265,694 was expected after the break-even point.
