Pig industry day discusses best options going forward

Sunpork's science, technology and adoption manager Kate Plush delivered the latest findings at Pork SA's update at Murray Bridge last week.

Dr Plush delved into science-based comparisons between farrowing crates and farrowing pens, as many pork producers look to make significant shed upgrades in the near future.

"It is important for producers to be aware of what should be installed in their sheds, if the industry was to remove farrowing crates in the system," she said.

"It is also important to discuss temporary confinement options, which is an interim solution being considered overseas and in some cases, legislated."

Austria and Germany have adopted this new system into its legislation.

"Some countries are exploring free-farrowing and whether or not that would be an option for producers and if it had an impact on productivity in these systems," Dr Plush said.

Looking at research from the past 10 years, Dr Plush also drew on findings to do with farrowing and lactation environments, in addition to a review into enrichment sources.

But, four years ago, Dr Plush analysed every piece of research available for performance of farrowing pens versus crates and looked at it as a whole.

It revealed that pre-weaning mortality was higher in a pen, when compared with a crate.

Dr Plush believed the research was able to show there was no impact from the level of confinement, length of time, pen size and provision of enrichment on pre-weaning mortality.

"Even though we can demonstrate this, the research is not convincing other producers and industry bodies overseas," she said.

Dr Plush said there was also an argument for temporary confinement, based on the activity levels of sows, straight after farrowing.

The amount of body posture changes the sow performs in the first three days after giving birth, was also analysed.

"In a farrowing crate, small pen or larger pen, there was no difference," Dr Plush said.

"We think it supports potentially using temporary confinement in the immediate, after farrowing."

The sector has also commenced a new research project in January, identifying risk factors for tail biting and what that means for tail docking in the industry.

PIG production researchers are trying to determine the best environment for sows and piglets, during lactation, birth and pre-weaning.

Sunpork's Kate Plush looked into the links between confinement timeframes and welfare, as well as piglet mortality.

The amount of time a sow will lay down during the lactation period in the first three days in a pen, crate or pen with enrichment, was revealed by Dr Plush, to be similar and upwards of 80 per cent.

"That changes after seven days and onwards," she said.

"Sows houses in pens with or without straw, become more active after this timeframe and lay down less, which suggest animals have increased motivation for locomotion and movement."

Dr Plush believes the three to seven-day period was the sweet spot for sow welfare but that left the question of what impact did that have on pre-weaning mortality of piglets?

A study from this year compared the impacts from no confinement, alongside three, four and six-day confinement.

"It was clear that a sow farrowed open in a combi-crate, was a bit of a disaster, with 17pc pre-weaning mortality but the lowest mortality was when the sow was confined for four days," Dr Plush said. "There is a straight relationship between the ability to reduce pre-weaning mortality using contemporary confinement, until about day seven, then it levels out."

She said this indicated confining a sow for longer than seven days would not boost productivity in regards to pre-weaning piglet mortality.

Pen zonation is also being researched.

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