The Rural Voice, 1996-06, Page 111
Scrap Book
Sows in communal
living give bigger
piglets, study says
A University of Manitoba
study shows that sows housed in
groups may have larger, heavier
litters than their sisters living in
conventional gestation crates.
"They're quite conducive to
group situations with straw,"
said Laurie Connor, who led the
project. "They do very well."
Connor has been collecting
data on sows since the summer
of 1994 when the first groups
were put into an uninsulated
shelter at the university's
Glenlea research station.
The 25 -metre -long shelter,
quonset-shaped and covered
with a tarp, was divided in half
to house two groups of 30 sows.
They spent most of their
maternity in the "lounging" part
of the shelter, nesting and
rooting around in the straw bed.
To avoid pushing and shoving at
meal times, the sows were let
into individual stalls on a
concrete pad at the front of the
shelter. There, researchers could
make sure each sow was getting
the right amount of feed.
"They are a social group
animal and they do establish
hierarchies, so one of the
problems often can be with
them being very aggressive and
bullying at feeding time,"
Connor explained.
The sows farrowed in crates
in the university's regular barns.
After being bred, the groups go
back to the shelters.
After five rounds of
pregnancies, Connor's data
shows the pigs did well. "They
tend to wean more and heavier
piglets than do the ones inside
(in a conventional barn)."
The only other difference is
that the outdoor pigs needed
between five and 20 per cent
more feed during the winter.0
Source: Western Producer
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