The Rural Voice, 1998-10, Page 234
meeting the needs of the sows.
Hurnik believes that the better the
physical and psychological comfort
needs of an animal are met, the
higher performance that can be
expected from the animal.
Traditional crates restrict a sow
from turning around, from
visual contact with her litter
and make it hard for her to lie down,
stand up or turn around. This can
cause frustration and nervousness
and in extreme cases can seriously
interfere with the farrowing process
or proper initiation of nursing and
maternal care, Hurnik says.
The crates also frustrate the sow's
natural prefarrowing practice of
building a nest. Within 24 hours of
farrowing the sow tries to build a
nest, even if there are no nesting
materials there. One of the
requirements is that she turn around.
Hurnik set out to design a crate
that allows the sow a more normal
behavior within the traditional five
foot by seven foot space taken up by
a rectangular crate. The goal was to
provide more space for the sow,
better protection of newborns against
crushing, easy access of piglets to the
teats of their mother and more
efficient use of building space.
The result is a crate that is not
only oval from head to foot but has
curved side bars that protect the
piglets sleeping space at floor level,
but give the same space to the mother
a foot or two off the ground. As a
result, a standing sow has 58 inches
of width instead of 24 inches and
when she lies down, she still has 42
inches compared to 24 inches.
Standing she has 25.2 square feet of
space compared to 14 in a traditional
crate and lying she has 18.8 instead
of 14.
The Farrownest is six feet in
length with an additional one foot
space on the door for the feeder but
because the pig can turn around and
come out through the door it entered,
only one door is needed, a saving of
about 20 per cent of space in a barn.
University of Guelph graduate
student Natalie Velmeycr tracked 33
sows using a traditional crate and 36
sows using the Farrownest in an
effort to compare the results of the
two systems. She found losses due to
stillborn and crushing up to seven
days of age were slightly lower in the
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OCTOBER 1998 19