Strategies for management, labour and housing

Abstract

In the last decade average breeding herd size has increased. This increase has been associated with a reduction in average weaning age, with improved performance and with systems that have become more intensive, have been based increasingly on housing with slatted floors and slurry handling systems and which, in partial consequence, have had reduced labour inputs. For pregnant sows, stalls and tethers have become increasingly used but the introduction of electronic feeders may herald a change from this system in the future. For farrowing sows, reductions in piglet mortality have been obtained by effecting a closer control over the environment, by using better equipment, and by using more hygienic materials in construction. The farrowing crate and pen have come to dominate the scene and it appears unlikely that this will change much in the foreseeable future. Weaning ages are unlikely to drop below the 25-day national average and flat-deck housing is likely to continue to predominate for young weaners for the next 5 years. Fully slatted floored pens for finishing pigs have become more popular but straw-bedded systems, which are capable of being improved in the future, have been tried.

Choice of any one housing system depends on a number of factors relative to individual needs. Capital cost, likely performance responses, ease of management and of construction and maintenance costs all have to be considered. In the future, outside influences relative to animal welfare and environmental factors increasingly will have to be considered.