Floor space in a swine operation needs to be used efficiently in the aspects of space and pig performance. Many floor space experiments examine different group sizes on the same floor space which leads to confounding results due to groups size being a large variable. A constant group size of 17 pigs was used, and they were housed in pens with different square footage. Growth and feed intake were reduced by week 4 when weanling pigs were housed in less than recommended floor space. The current standards for floor space allowance are accurate.
Crowding Reduces Performance of Weanling Pigs (full article)
