Weaning Sows Directly into Group Housing
Social stress from mixing sows has the potential to negatively affect sow production and welfare. Housing sows in stalls from weaning until five weeks after breeding is a common strategy used to prevent aggression and ensure control over individual feeding during breeding, conception and implantation. However, alternative management options are...
by
Ken Engele
National Sow Housing Conversion Project
The National Sow Housing Conversion Project (NSHCP) was conceived as a descriptive project to facilitate the successful conversion of Canada’s sow barns to group housing. The project involved collaboration from industry participants and academic researchers working together on a comprehensive strategy involving demonstration farms, technology transfer materials...
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Ken Engele
Determining Effective Enrichments for Group Housed Sows
Providing enrichment involves making changes to the environment that are intended to increase the range of normal Behaviours and improve the biological functioning and well-being of animals. Enrichment in group housing systems has the potential to significantly improve animal welfare by reducing aggression and injuries, stimulating exercise and the...
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Ken Engele
Practical Alternatives for Castration
The Canadian Code of Practice requires that swine producers provide analgesics to piglets at castration to help control post-procedural pain. However, complete information on the different analgesics available to control post-procedural pain, their effectiveness and optimized procedures for delivering pain control have not been identified. This project...
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Ken Engele
Determining Optimum Space Allowance for Nursery Pigs
Studies were conducted in 2 phases to determine the eff ects of six diff erent space allowances (k= 0.0230, 0.0265, 0.0300, 0.0335, 0.0370, and 0.0390) on nursery pig behavior, growth and welfare from 3 to 8 weeks of age. Phase 1 was a controlled trial conducted at...
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Ken Engele
Are Sows Motivated for Movement?
The Canadian Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs requires that as of July 1, 2024, all mated gilts and sows must be housed in groups, or individual pens. Mated gilts and sows may also be housed in existing stall barns if...
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Ken Engele
Feeder Design Considerations
The minimum width of a feeding space is based on the shoulder width of the largest pig in the pen, plus 10 % to accommodate variation in body shape. The formula used to calculate the width of a feeding space is: Minimum feeder space width = maximum shoulder...
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Ken Engele
Improving Biosecurity in Swine Transport
While on farm biosecurity measures are increasingly stringent, a major gap that can allow for transmission of disease is biosecurity in transport. As such, new cleaning procedures for trailers must be developed to make sanitizing trailers easy and effective. Problems associated with cleaning trailers include...
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Ken Engele
Transitioning to Loose Sow Housing
One producer's (John Van Engelen, Ontario) lessons in making the transition to group sow housing. As presented to a Group Sow Housing Seminar in the fall of 2017. https://youtu.be/WOzUdmEDsLs ...
by
Ken Engele
Group Sow Housing Resources
The following resources are designed for producers looking to make the transition to group sow housing. ...
by
Ken Engele