What the textbooks don’t tell you about… Hot weather

Summer’s here in the Northern hemisphere, and with it those listless sows and languid gilts, reduced appetite, stuffy, overhot farrowing houses, sunburn for the outdoor pigs – and irritable stockpeople trying to keep pace with it all! Stimulated by some excellent and mainly new advice from PIC recently, I realised that the pig textbooks I have (and I have most of them) are not all that ‘hot’ on warm weather advice, so perhaps a few updating remarks may be useful. read more >

Free space utilisation of sows in free access stalls

2013 marks the start of mandatory group housing for sows in the European Union. Group housing of sows, however, is being discussed and researched in other parts of the world as well. The Prairie Swine Centre recently investigated free access stalls and found that not all sows used the free space areas on a regular basis, or for extended periods of time. read more >

Pig house design is key to production success

For long, proper ventilation and insulation have been key points in constructing proper pig housing. Agri-housing is never a case of ’one-size-fits-all’. read more >

A two storey pig farm – high and dry

In the whole of the Netherlands, about 15 twostorey pig farms can be found. Although criticised for societal reasons, the housing approach offers lots of advantages for producers. read more >

Group Housing for Sows: Now it's time to act

There are just 777 days from the start of EuroTier until 1 January 2013. From that date onwards, all gestating sows in the EU will have to be kept in group housing systems. While some producers have already made the switch to group housing, many still have to do so – but how? For those still undecided, EuroTier 2010 comes at the ideal time to help producers make this strategic decision. read more >