Good handlers and the right genetics can create successful group housing of sows, says University of Manitoba researcher Laurie Connor.
Group housing is getting attention because the practice of confining sows for long periods in gestation stalls has generated negative press and some high profile operators such as Maple Leaf and Smithfield have pledged to phase them out.
Good handlers with the ability to read the animals are critical to making a group housing system work, said Connor, who also said it requires an approach involving different work, not extra work.
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“There is a lot of scientific work that has demonstrated that human interaction has a positive benefit for reproductive performance,” said Connor, who serves as department head of reproductive physiology at the university.
“The opposite is also true. If you have fearful animals, you can definitely expect your reproductive performance to drop.”
Producer Chris Cockle, owner of a 1,000 sow operation near Embro, Ont., switched to group housing in 1996 and found that it has paid off in improved longevity, culling and better farrowing numbers. He keeps sows in groups of 25 per pen.
He has adopted a gentle approach to working with sows that aims to maximize human contact. Now that group dynamics have stabilized, aggression among sows in his barn is “not an issue.”
While performing regular duties such as vaccination and pregnancy checking, he makes a point of touching the sows.
“When you walk into the pens, they come right up to you. They want to be touched,” Cockle said.
“They become so quiet and contented that it’s easy to move animals in and out of the pens.”
The use of gestation stalls has become so widespread in the industry that they are wrongly perceived as being easier from a management standpoint, he said.
Also, construction companies accustomed to erecting “cookie-cutter” sow facilities are reluctant to look at new designs, he added.
When he built his new barn based on a group housing format, at a 30 percent capital cost saving over conventional, many builders were reluctant to even offer a quote.
Selective breeding for stock that is neither too aggressive nor too timid may play a role in developing animals more suitable for group housing, Cockle added.
When he first introduced group housing, sow mortality shot up from five percent to a peak of 11 percent. Now that he is breeding all of his own replacement animals for strength, structure and less aggression, mortality has dropped to one percent.
“As far as the aggression and the longevity of the sows, it does have a lot to do with the genetics package that you are working with,” he said.
Connor said her study results at Glenlea Research Station found that sow performance and health were not compromised by group housing and longevity improved substantially.
The argument that culling sows after the second litter is better economically mainly helps the breeding companies, she added.
