Pen gestation appears to be the future of sow housing, and helping pork producers pick an option that suits their operation is the goal of Innovative Swine Solutions (ISS), says Laura Greiner, director of research and swine nutrition.

ISS is the research arm of Carthage (IL) Veterinary Service (CVS), Ltd., studying sow and pig feeding and production systems from conception to slaughter.

To help producers define their choices on sow housing, ISS has begun studies of two very different pen arrangements.

Complete results of this comparative study will be presented by Greiner at the CVS Annual Swine Conference on Sept. 1 at Western Illinois University in Macomb, IL. Go to www.hogvet.com or call (217) 357-2811 for more details about the conference.

Following is a glimpse of some preliminary findings and observations.

Drop Feeding System

At Bluff Road Genetics, a Newsham Choice Genetics daughter nucleus farm located in northeast Missouri, pens are equipped with 10 individual feeding stations. Tubes that extend down close to the concrete floor provide feed three times a day, 4-5 lb. total. The individual stations are designed to reduce boss sows' activity.

“If you put 4-5 lb. in front of all 10 sows, all at once, each sow has the opportunity to eat at the same time. However, you may still have one sow that may eat faster than another, and go over to the next station and push out that neighboring sow,” Greiner explains.

Penning sows in groups of 10 simplifies management and identifying sows for treatment. The small pen configuration also makes it easier to confine small groups of gilts of similar size. Both sows and gilts are provided 18.4 sq. ft each.

“When sows are placed in small groups, they must be grouped by similar body condition, because you can't individually feed a sow with this system — every drop box has to be set with the same amount of feed,” she says.

Stocking a pen coincides with turning the feeding system on. With the feeding system running, it distracts sows to eat rather than fight, Greiner says. “Sows eat and become more comfortable when they are full, and there is less aggressive behavior as a result,” she explains.

A modification of this system would be to make it into a trickle-feeding system. The trickle-feeding system requires no training as sows quickly figure out where to get feed and the slow release would further reduce competition and improve nutrient digestibility, she says.

Performance in the individual feeding stations has been quite good. Conception rate has been 97%, with farrowing rate at 92%. Total pigs born have exceeded 13, with a born-alive average at 12.2 pigs. Sow replacement rate has been 52% as this herd completes its third parity.

ESF Approach

The electronic sow feeding (ESF) system at High Power Farms, Augusta, IL, features 56 sows/pen, also providing 18.4 sq. ft./sow.

Electronic ear tags are linked to the Nedap sow feeding stations. Sows enter one end of the feeding “tunnel;” a back gate locks them in until they finish eating, then releases them. Sows in queue nudge out the departing sow to take her place in the feeding vestibule.

Nedap features a computer-based system called Velos, which provides feeding flexibility. Diets can be changed by pen and for individuals.

“The individual electronic ear tag ‘talks’ to Velos, so when the sow enters the Nedap station, it reads the tag and tells how much feed that sow is to get that day, how much it has already eaten, and provides the diet that sow is supposed to get,” Greiner says.

The Nedap system also gives farm manager Mike Root daily reports of feeding activity, identifying animals that have not eaten their allotment. When that happens, Root finds those sows, physically runs them through the station or, when necessary, places them in a hospital pen for treatment.

“This is a very useful sow recordkeeping system in that it helps us identify problems that might be a little hard to see in a group of 56 sows,” Greiner observes.

The Velos computer links to an AgroSoft software program. Using a handheld PDA (personal digital assistant), a scanner is waved over a sow's ear to retrieve production data. “The wand reads the sow's ear tag and the data is transferred to the PDA, telling me her ID, when she was bred and her farrowing performance. We also use this technology once a week to manage body condition at High Power,” she adds.

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Future Promise for ESF