Farmers who changed housing systems to conform with EU welfare guidelines have ended up with higher costs, while others have continued with their about-to-be-banned Eurocages
by NORMAN DUNN
European farmers who accepted the need to change animal housing systems at the start of the millennium have ended up paying heavily for their move away from dry sow stalls and battery cages for layers.
The sad fact is that, more than a decade later, the welfare pioneers are still pretty much on their own. And thousands of hog and egg producers who carried on with cheaper, and often more efficient, production systems outside European Union (EU) welfare guidelines remain in profitable production.