The Rural Voice, 2003-04, Page 24the early advice they got that the
they'd have more sows return to heat
if they were put into a group situation
before embryos were firmly
implanted but that hasn't proven to
be the case at all.
That's an example of the kind of
advice that has kept people from
trying new things, Wilson says.
"We all suffer from one thing and
that's bad information," he says.
The prejudice against group
housing in the industry, for
instance, goes back to the
problems encountered when five or
six sows were kept in a pen and there
1
was greater competition. But with
sows in a larger group, like 25 in a
pen, and the feed spread over a wider
portion of the floor in four spots in
the sub -divided pen, there's no
fighting over food because there's
plenty of space and a dominant sow
has to go too far to steal the next
sow's feed.
The groups stay together as they
move off to the farrowing area, then
are bred and brought back in to the
group housing again.
"The sows are happier, more
content," he told the audience at
Kirkton.
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Part of their contentment comes
from twice -a -day feeding. He doesn't
use any more feed than if the sows
were in stalls — in fact he thinks it
takes less. When OMAF veterinarian
Tim Blackwell questioned him on
that at Kirkton, saying "everything
we've been taught says they should
use more feed in loose pens and
stalls", Wilson replied that "I can't
explain it other than that the sows are
happier."
If there is a problem with a sow,
Wilson finds it easier to pick them
out. It's also easier to spot a sow that
has gone back into heat.
One of the advantages of the
system is building up immunity,
Wilson feels. As sows mix, they all
share bugs any one of them might
have picked up, self -vaccinating
themselves and making them all less
susceptible to disease spreading.
Sows in stalls don't mingle and
develop their immunity but if one of
them gets sick, sooner or later it will
spread despite the isolation, he says.
He's a believer in making use of
immunity. "If you could mix sows at
the right stage of pregnancy a lot of
Fred Groenestege
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