Alternative group housing session at Banff Pork Seminar with VIDO’s Swine Technical Group

For immediate release, January 8, 2008

(Saskatoon, Sask.)-Practical experience, producer feedback and professional expertise will be brought to bear on the challenges of switching from a crate-based gestation management system to group housing at the 2008 Banff Pork Seminar.

Currently, most sows in North America are housed in stalls throughout pregnancy.

In early 2007, Smithfield Foods and Maple Leaf Foods, Inc. announced that their farms will adopt loose housing within the next decade. In the European Union, use of gestation stalls must be discontinued by 2013 except during the first weeks of gestation.

“The role of the VIDO Swine Technical Group is not to promote one management system over another. Rather, we want to ensure that the experience of successful managers across the country is available to Canadian pork producers, so that any decision to renovate or rebuild is an informed one,” said Lee Whittington, Manager (Information Services) of Prairie Swine Centre, Inc.

Producers familiar only with gestation stalls have concerns about group housing systems regarding aggression among animals, management of feed intake and condition, and changes in routine chores.

At a Banff Pork Seminar breakout session, VIDO Swine Technical Group (VSTG) members will provide detailed overviews of alternative group housing systems.

Tony Nicol (Manager, Poundmaker Pork Farm) will cover electronic sow feeding (ESF), which is widely used in some European countries as a loose housing system. “Each of the units I am discussing has outputs in excess of 27 pigs weaned per sow per year,” he said, but acknowledges that extra labour may lead to higher production costs.

Franklin Kains of the Ontario Pork Industry Council will discuss floor feeding for loose-housed sows and retro-fitting existing gestation stall housing with the least cost and fewest compromises. “In these times in the pork industry, it is more likely that loose housing systems will come through renovating rather than building new barns,” he said.

Lee Whittington, VSTG Chair, will give an overview of loose housing and a look at newer but less-known alternatives for loose-housed sows.

The presentation Turning Loose on Sow Housing will take place in afternoon breakout sessions Wednesday, Jan. 16 and Thursday, Jan. 17. Please visit http://www.banffpork.ca/ for more information.

The VSTG is also creating an online survey, available Feb.1, 2008 on the VIDO Web site, to assist the industry in assessing the cost and timelines of implementing new housing technology.

Intended to capture producer attitudes and concerns toward changes in sow management and create an inventory of types of sow housing currently in use in Canada, the survey closes March 30, 2008.

The VIDO Web site offers additional information compiled by the VSTG: Swine Disease Net is a unique concentration of approximately 600 resources offering solutions to commonly encountered problems, day or night. Enhanced and redesigned, Swine Disease Net is now live at www.vido.org/swinediseasenet.

The University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) is a world leader in the research and development of vaccine and immunity-enhancing technologies for humans and animals. Formed in 1980, the VIDO Swine Technical Group (VSTG) supports the industry by developing resources on issues affecting production, enabling livestock producers to refine their operations and enhance the health of their animals.

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For more information, please contact:

Lee Whittington
Chair, VSTG
(B) 306-667-7447
(C) 306-222-6915

Franklin Kains
VSTG member
(B) 519-742-4591

Tony Nicol
VSTG member
(B) 780-842-6140
(C) 780-872-8031