Pads Radiate Warmth
Precast concrete hot water pads are joining the short list of products designed to keep pigs snug and warm. The challenge of keeping pigs warm and cozy...
Making Group Sow Housing Work
New systems of floor feeding and adding complexity to sow pens can reduce confrontations. If sows can gain greater access to feed by being aggressive,...
The Key to Making Pen Gestation Work
With over 50 years of hog-raising experience under his belt, Dale Keesecker has seen and tried any number of new products and management practices. In...
Hot Water Alternative
Hot water pads are joining the short list of products designed to keep pigs snug and warm. The challenge of keeping pigs warm and cozy during the two...
Hog Barns Don't Come with Owner's Manuals
An effective operations manual can help barn staffs keep production facilities running smoothly. Pork producers commonly invest hundreds of thousands...
Stalls Versus Pens
The University of Minnesota's swine research facility at Waseca, MN, compares sows housed in individual stalls vs. pens, but the jury is still out. The...
Free Stall Eases Feeding, AI Chores
New hoop barn helps achieve consistent sow body condition and fits with organic production standards. Three years ago, Organic Prairie pork producer Tom...
Electronic Sow Feeding Lessons Learned
In 2005, Jimmy Tosh felt the time was right to step away from gestation stalls in favor of pen gestation with an electronic sow feeding system. When James...
To Stall or Not to Stall?
What is the single, most important issue facing the pork industry in 2008? In the near term, feed costs would surely top most lists. In the long term,...
The Sow Stall Debate Continues
This Quarterly Benchmarking review offers some clues on how gestating sows performed in four different housing systems. Additionally, this fourth article...
