sow housing

SOW HOUSING SEMINAR2013 PORK ACADEMY

1

Donald G Levis, Ph.D Harold Gonyou, Ph.D. Ronald O. Bates, Ph.D.

Levis Worldwide Swine Consultancy

Prairie Swine Centre(retired)

Michigan State Univ.

Lincoln, NE 68526-9486 Saskatoon, SK, Canada E. Lansing, MI

Email:[email protected]

Email: [email protected]

Email:[email protected]

2

Outline for Sow Housing Seminar

• Objectives of the seminarBrief description of the main types of group-housing

systemsGeneral factors involved with deciding which group-

housing system to useOverview of retrofitting projectRetrofitting an existing individual stall gestation

facility into:– Electronic sow feeding facility– Short-stall feeding facility

Comparison between ESF and short-stall system

Sow-group housing systems

• Noncompetitive feeding system– Electronic sow feeder– Free-access stalls (self or caretaker locked)– Cafeteria feeding with lockable feeding stall

• Competitive feeding systems– “Short” feeding stalls (Trickle feeding; Traditional drop

box)– Full-body length stalls (non-lockable)– Floor feeding

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4

Electronic sow feeder (ESF) system

Photo: Jeff Schoening / AP

Resting bay

Sows enter

Sortsows

Water

Sortalley

Protectedfeeder

Feed delivery

This specific system:Feeds up to 80 sows per stationFeed two different diets & top dressTo establish a “day” for the sows, feeder is closed 4 to 6 hours per 24-hour period

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Photo: Jeff Schoening / AP

Individual stalls for weaning, breeding and early gestation

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Multiple feeders can be used to fit the number of sows in the pen.

Photo: Nedap Livestock Management Systems

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Free-access stall (locked rear gate)

“I” Configuration with front alley

Photo: Prairie Swine Centre (Canada)

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“L” Configuration with front alley

Photo: Dr. Niels-Peder Nielsen (Denmark)

Minimum = 9’10”

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“T” Configuration (ease of cleaning floor)

Photo: Egebjerg International / Axel Sogaard (Denmark)

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Trickle feeding (non-gated feeding method)

Top auger fills feed drop boxBottom auger slowly turn to dispense 0.17 to 0.44 pounds of feed per minute (eating time: 15 to 30 minutes)Partition length• Head• Shoulder• Half-body• Full-body with

no rear gate

Feeding spacewidthIf shoulder:18 to 22 inches

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Floor feeding

Photo: Prairie Swine Centre (Canada)

Feed drops in bays.

Slattedfloor

Feed drop 2

Feed drop 1

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Cafeteria feeding

• High amount of staff time is needed for feeding sows• Potential for injury

of sows and staff• Requires patient staff• Can top-dress feed• Feeder management

needed; unequal number sows per pen;

different sow bodycondition betweenpens Lee Whittington, Prairie Swine Centre (Canada)

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Choosing a group-housing system involves:

• Investment costs• Ability of housing system and management to maintain a

high level of the sow’s health and welfare• Ease of performing daily management practices• Labor requirement and availability of skilled labor• Feeding system (major factor to consider)

– Competitive while eating– Non-competitive while eating

• Method of housing (static vs dynamic)• Reproductive performance• Overall simplicity of the system• Not one system fits all situations

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Overview of remodel project

• 2,500-sow unit• Goal is to produce 1,000 weaned pigs per week• Farrowing ~108 sows per week• Breeding 120 per week• Breeding-gestation facility

– 79 ft wide x 492 ft long (interior dimensions)– 4 cross-over alleys– 720 breeding-gestation stalls (2 ft x 7 ft)– 1192 gestation stalls (2 ft x 7 ft)– 239 stalls per row; 8 rows of stalls– Partially slatted floor

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36" feed alley

36" feed alley

36"

alle

y

36" feed alley

36" feed alley

36" feed alley

7’

2’

7’

7’

7’

7’

7’

7’3’

2’

2’

2’

7’

3’

3’

3’

3’39.5’

39.5’

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BEFORE

AFTER

Courtesy of AP

Typical floor plan for a partially slatted breeding-gestation stall building. How can this facility be modified for use with a group-housing system that uses ESF or short-length feeding stalls? Is the raised feeding alley a problem?

Overview of remodel project

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Factors to consider when remodeling

• Feeding/Housing System• Stay within the present building shell or expand• Work with the present feeding system• Floor space allocation per sow• Number of sows per pen• #Boar pens• Size and configuration of relief space• Number of relief spaces

Nutritional Care of Group-Housed Sows

• Electronic Sow Feeding Specify amount of feed offered to each sow each day Can modify diet fed Can change daily feed intake based on body

condition, body size and stage of gestation Provides a daily report that indicates which sows did

not completely eat their previous day’s allotment of feed or did not eat any feed.

Potential feed savings18

Feeding method with most control of daily feed intake and diet


• “Short-length”, non-gated feeding stalls Allocate feed volume to average body weight of sows

in the pen? Use of multiple pens for the same breeding group can

improve feed allocation requirements per pen (body weight; body condition score)GiltsSmall & thin sowsBig Sows

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Feeding method with “partial” control of daily feed intake and diet


In any competitive feeding system, dominant sow(s) have opportunity to “steal” feed from other sows.

• Short-length feeding stall• Non-gated, full-body length free access

feeding/resting stall• Floor feeding• Trickle feeding

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Sow Flow - General

Weekday Day PregSpaces Area

Weaning Th 0120 Breeding

Breeding Tu 5 0120 Breeding

Preg check W 3429 120 Breeding

To gestation M 39 34108 (90%) Gestation

4 RecoveryTo farrowing F 113 108 108

FarrowingWeaning Th 140

120 Breeding

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Sow Flow - General

Day WeeksSpaces/wk Spaces

Weaning 0 Breeding

6 120 720To gestation 39 Gestation

11 108 1192

Recovery

11 4 44To farrowing 113 Farrowing

4 108 432Weaning 140

21 2384

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Sow Flow – Gestation Stalls

Day Weeks Spaces/wk Spaces

Weaning 0 Breeding6 120 stalls 720

To gestation 39 Gestation11 108 stalls 1192Recovery11 4 pens 44

To farrowing 113 Farrowing4 108 crates 432

Weaning 140

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Sow Flow – Short Stalls


Weaning 0 Breeding

6 120 stalls 720To gestation 39 Gestation

11 11 pens 121

Recovery

11 1 pens 11To farrowing 113 Farrowing

4 108 crates 432Weaning 140

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Sow Flow – Electronic Sow Feeders


Weaning 0 Breeding


11 1 g&p1 pen 11

1 sow pen 11

Recovery



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Sow Care

• Controlling aggression• Maintain feeding level• Sow off feed• Sow underfed• Sow injured• Sorting

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Sow Care – Reducing Aggression

Short Stalls

• Re-grouping– Maximize familiarity– Extra feeding

• Feeding Associated– Sorting– Group size

ESF

• Re-grouping– Maximize familiarity– Extra feeding

• Feeding Associated– Sorting– Group size

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Sow Care – Maintain Feeding Level

Short Stalls

• Check and adjust individual feed drops

ESF

• Program sows into ESF

• Check and adjust water and feed drops for each station

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Sow Care – Sow Off Feed

Short Stalls

• Detection– Watch feeding

• Causation– Unwell/lame

• Action– Move to relief

ESF

• Detection– Daily attention list

• Causation– Unwell/lame– Intimidated

• Action– Move to relief or single-pass

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Sow Care – Sow Underfed

Short Stalls

• Detection– Body condition

• Action– Top up feed by hand– Cannot change pen– Move to relief

ESF

• Detection– Body condition

• Action– Reprogram feed allowance

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Sow Care – Sow Injured

Short Stalls

• Detection– Walk through and observe


ESF

• Detection– Daily attention list– Walk through and observe


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Sow Care - Sorting

Short Stalls

• 1 in group of 10• ‘hand’ sorting

ESF

• 1 in group of 60• Hand held ID• Auto-paint• Auto-sort• ‘hand’ sorting

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Labor - Skills

Short stalls

• Animal oriented• Schedule conscious

– Observe feeding

• One person

ESF

• Both technical and animal oriented

• One plus assistant• Can you attract a technical

person– Importance is decreasing due

to better systems and more tech-savvy youth

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ESF Conversion - Sow Flow


Weaning 0 Breeding

6 120 720To gestation 39 Gestation

11 108 1188

Recovery

11 4 44To farrowing 113 Farrowing

4 108 432Weaning 140

21 2384

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ESF Conversion - Considerations

• Retain flooring– Solid and slatted floors in 8 rows– Use solid for lying and slatted for movement as much as

possible– Provide extra space due to restricted design

• Gilts must be trained– Modified one-pass system so non-feeding gilts are easily

managed– Gilt pen needed each week for training

• Sows limited to 60 per station– Excess (parity 1) sows housed with gilts

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ESF Conversion - Sow Flow


Weaning 0 Breeding


11 1 g&p1 pen 11

1 sow pen 11

Recovery



37

ESF Conversion – Floor cross section

Solid – alleySolid - stallSlat - stall

3 4 8 4 3 4 8 4 3 4 8 4 3 4 8 4 3

36.5 ft

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ESF Conversion – Gilt and P1 pen

48 animals x 20 sqft/animal = 960 sqft

960 sqft / 36.5 ft width = 26 ft length

Slats Slats

36.5 ft

26 ft

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StationCentral divisionRest areasDrinkers

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ESF Conversion – Gilt Training

First day –Grouping, Aggression, Eating, Sleeping

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One Pass System

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43


44


45


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ESF Conversion – Sow pen

60 animals x 22 sqft/animal = 1320 sqft1320 sqft / 36.5 ft width = 36 ft length

36.5 ft

36 ft

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ESF Conversion – Sow pen

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ESF Conversion – Relief Pen

Combine 2 gestation stalls.

4 ft x 7 ft

Allows standing and lying with ease.

Difficult to turn around.

Use for lameness.

Return to same pen or new gilt and p1 pen.

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ESF Conversion – Putting it Together

Gilt and Sow pens have been adjusted to allow cross-alleys.Only 36 relief pens.Short 4 Sow pens.Need addition with 4800 sqft of pens (4x1, 2x2, 1x4?)12.5%

ESF Conversion – Static or Dynamic

Static4 x 1 group

A

Dynamic2 x 2 groups

Dynamic1 x 4 groups

B

C D

A B

F G

A D

G J

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ESF Conversion – What ifs?

• Could an additional sow pen fit in the original barn if you reduce the square footage per animal?– Reducing 1 sqft per animal is not enough– Reducing 2 sqft per animal would allow one more pen

• Do we have to include relief pens?– Very strongly encouraged.

• Can we use larger dynamic pens?– Most suitable for sows. Work best when there are 12

‘weeks’.• Can we work with 12 weeks of gestation?

– Reduce the breeding weeks from 6 to 5 by preg checking and moving earlier.

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ESF Conversion - Alternative

• Previous conversion forced a pen design in order to make full use of space in the gestation barn– Increased square footage per sow to ensure comfort

• Can we fit a better pen design in the space even if we accept some loss of use?– Longer narrow pens with one row of lying bays

• Assume gilts are pre-trained– Combined sow and gilt pens

• Reduce sow herd inventory to fit the building

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ESF Conversion – Floor cross section

Solid – alleySolid - stallSlat - stall

3 4 8 4 3 4 8 4 3 4 8 4 3 4 8 4 3

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ESF Conversion – Alternative Design

90 sows x 19 sqft/sow = 1710 sq ft

11 ft

8 ft

90 ft

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ESF Conversion – Alternative Design

Build within existing structureMove from breeding to gestation at day 34 (29 preg)5 weeks of stalls (500)42 relief pens12 ESF pens for 90 sows and gilts (2 stations)Loss of space along one wall (solid), used for sortingCan sort sows from one ESF pen to adjacentReduce breedings by 17%

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ESF Conversions

• ESF uses larger pens which may be difficult to fit within an existing structure

• When required to ‘fit over’ an existing floor pattern, pen design is further compromised– Increase space compared to a new build

• Pen size may also be compromised by existing breeding plan – (eg. difficult to efficiently build for 140 breedings/week)

• Expect a 10-20% loss in sow numbers or increase in space

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Sow Flow – Short Stalls


Weaning 0 Breeding


11 11 pens 121

Recovery



58

Converting to Non-gated Stalls

• 36" feed alley

• 36" feed alley

•36

" al

ley

• 36" feed alley

• 36" feed alley

• 36" feed alley

• 7’• 2’• 7’• 7’

• 7’• 7’

• 7’

• 7’• 3’

• 2’

• 2’

• 2’• 7’

• 3’

• 3’

• 3’

• 3’

•39.5’

•39.5’

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Considerations to Address

• Number of sows per pen?a. 10 per penb. 20 per pen

i. Why?

• Square-footagea. 18 sq ftb. 20 sq ft

a. Why not more?

• Relief Space ~ 5%

• Static Groups

60


Review of barn in question

• 1192 G-stalls – partial slats– 24 in stalls

• 8 rows of 149 gestation stalls• 4 cross rows

– 29 stalls between cross rows• Work with the present feed system• Keep the same isles for sow movement

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Review of barn in question

Within a double row• 5 blocks of stalls • 4 blocks of 58 stalls

– 29 stalls per side

• 1 block 66 stalls (one end) – 33 stalls per side

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• 36" feed alley

• 36" feed alley

•36

" al

ley

• 36" feed alley

• 36" feed alley

• 36" feed alley

• 7’• 2’• 7’• 7’

• 7’• 7’

• 7’

• 7’• 3’

• 2’

• 2’

• 2’• 7’

• 3’

• 3’

• 3’

• 3’

•39.5’

•39.5’

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Within two rows

• 4 blocks with 928 sq ft– 492 sq ft (58 linear ft per side)

• 1 block with 1056 sq ft– 528 sq ft

• Feeding stalls of outside of pen– 2 ft space

• Create space for a gate

64


• 36" feed alley

• 36" feed alley

•36

" al

ley

• 36" feed alley

• 36" feed alley

• 36" feed alley

• 7’• 2’• 7’• 7’

• 7’• 7’

• 7’

• 7’• 3’

• 2’

• 2’

• 2’• 7’

• 3’

• 3’

• 3’

• 3’

•39.5’

•39.5’

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BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Courtesy of AP

66

5’ 5’

Relief Pens

Within each block are 4 pens of 10 sows per pen (20 sq ft/sow) and 4 relief pens

10 sows

10 sows

10 sows

10 sows 10 sows

10 sows

10 sows

10 sows


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Within block are 4 pens, 10 sows per pen (18 sq ft) and 6 relief pens

4’8”

Relief Pens

10 sows10 sows

10 sows

10 sows

10 sows 10 sows 10 sows

10 sows


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Within each block are two pens of 10, two of 11 (~20 sq ft/sow) and 4 Relief Pens

Relief Pens

4’

10 sows

10 sows

10 sows

10 sows

11 sows

11 sows

11 sows

11 sows


24’ 26’

Set relief pens at 4’x8’

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Within each block is one pen of 20 and one of 22 (~20 sq ft/sow) and 4 Relief Pens

Relief Pens

4’

20 sows 20 sows22 sows 22 sows


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Set relief pens at 4’ x 8 ‘


4’

Relief Pens

Within each block are two pens of 11, two of 12 (~17.6 sq ft/sow) and 4 Relief Pens

11 sows

11 sows

11 sows

11 sows

12 sows

12 sows 12 sows

12 sows

24’ 26’

8’

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4’

Relief Pens

Within each block is one pen of 22 and one of 24 (~17.6 sq ft/sow) and 4 Relief Pens

22 sows 22 sows24 sows 24 sows


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66 stall block at end • 33 stalls per side

18 sq ft/sow• Divider across slats - 4 pens of 10 and two pens of 9 sows

• 2 pens of 10 sows and 1 of 9 per row

• No divider – 2 pens of 20 and one pen of 18• No relief pen

20 sq ft/sow• Divider across slats – 4 pens of 10 and two pens of 7 sows

• 2 pens of 10 and 1 of seven sows per row

• No divider – 2 pens of 20 sows and one of 14 sows

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Sq ft/sow 18 20 18 20

# Relief pens/row-block

2 2 1 1

#relief pens/row 8 8 4 4

# sow pens per row

11 11 11 11

#sows/ row 137 119 141 123

% relief 5.8% 6.7% 2.8% 3.3%

G. Sows in Barn 1096 952 1128 984

# sows short 96 240 64 208

Sow Per Pen ~10

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Set relief pens at 4’ x 8 ‘


4’

Relief Pens

Within each block are two pens of 11, two of 12 (~17.6 sq ft/sow) and 4 Relief Pens

11 sows

11 sows

11 sows

11 sows

12 sows

12 sows 12 sows

12 sows

24’ 26’

8’

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Sq ft/sow 18 20 18 20

# Relief pens/row-block

2 2 1 1

#relief pens/row 8 8 4 4

# sow pens per row

11 11 11 11

#sows/ row 137 119 141 123

% relief 5.8% 6.7% 2.8% 3.3%

G. Sows in Barn 1096 952 1128 984

# sows short 96 240 64 208

Sow Per Pen ~10

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What if sows were moved to pens a week earlier?

If sows were moved 32 days post weaning (20-28 days post breeding)

• Need 120 less breed stalls

• Convert 120 breed stalls to pens @ ~18 sq ft/sow– Should be able to maintain the sow inventory, including relief

• Covert breed stalls to pens @ ~ 20 sq ft/sow– Within 100 sows of maintaining the inventory, including relief

77


Courtesy of Big Dutchman USA

An example of a remodel

78


An example of new construction

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24 inch G-Stalls 22 inch G-Stalls

16 18 20 22 240

2

4

6

8

10

12

10

8 87

6

Num

ber o

f sow

s per

10

stal

ls

16 18 20 22 240

2

4

6

8

10

12

98

76 6

Floor Space Allocation per Sow Floor Space Allocation per Sow

80


Summary

• No short-cut or standard way to re-configure an existing barn

• The example completed tried to provide adequate space per sow and maintain as much of the sow the inventory as possible

• More space per animal may be a better long-term choice Manager will have to be more conscious to manage for both productivity and welfare compared to stalls

• The example completed, demonstrated that for this building, the sow inventory could be maintained with ~ 18 sq ft (17.6) per sow and ~ 3% relief space. Is this the best?

81

Conclusion

When retrofitting stalled barns to group sow housing, there is no single approach

The farm decision process should be logical and consider the welfare and care needs of the sow, the physical limitations of the facility in question and address the production needs of the farm

The final decision must be one that meets the needs and objectives of the farm, be managed by the people responsible for optimum sow care and is financially feasible

82

Conclusion

Factsheets and the accompanying webinars for the Group Sow Housing project can be found at:

www.pork.org/sowhousing

http://www.pork.org/sowhousing

sow housing

Education

grouphousing system

sow housing seminar

sow unit goal

sows health

injuryof sows

sows potential

number of sows

facility shortstall