Eye on Europe

When these German farmers pen their weaners in the feeding barn, they’ll know the slaughter price for each. But, in return, the co-operative involved demands that high welfare and environmental standards are followed

by NORMAN DUNN

Continually moving air pressure beneath the lying sows will prevent shoulder sores in nursing sows, believes this Danish barn builder

by NORMAN DUNN

The principle of variable-pressure pneumatic mattresses, developed originally to avoid development of pressure sores with bed-ridden patients in hospitals, has been applied in farrowing crate flooring to avoid shoulder sores with nursing sows.

Savings of up to 15 per cent can be realized by converting old barns to the system, which results in less stress for piglets and improved temperament for group nursing sows

by NORMAN DUNN

More group nursing could be introduced in sow herds, according to Barbara Früh of the Organic Agriculture Research Institute (FiBL) in Frick, Switzerland. The system has sows moving from individual farrowing pens after a minimum 10 days suckling into groups of usually four with a minimum 3.5 square metres of lying area per sow and litter.

Most at risk in large litters are the smallest members. Danish research suggests that moving them to a second litter after a few hours helps
by NORMAN DUNN

There’s probably not a country in the world looking so hard for the best ways of fostering young piglets than Denmark. This is because Danish sows farrow from 12 to 13 liveborn piglets on average per litter and this performance is increasing steadily by 0.3 piglets every year.