Gestating Sows: All Group Housing is Not the Same, But Neither are All Stalls
By Harold W. Gonyou, Prairie Swine Centre Inc. - The greatest factor affecting the productivity and longevity of sows in a herd is control of their body condition, or, simply put, their weight. Neither thin nor fat sows are able to consistently produce...

Getting My Barn Built - An Update on Regulations from a U.S. Perspective
By L. M. Safley, Jr., President, Agri-Waste Technology, Inc. - This paper, presented at the January 2003 Banff Pork Seminars, discusses the influences on the confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) regulations.

Group Housing: Alternative Systems, Alternative Management
By Harold Gonyou, Prairie Swine Center - This paper, presented at the January 2003 Banff Pork Seminars, looks at group housing systems by feeding type, and also examines management options for social behaviour, sow comfort, and reproduction.

Nursery Management Using Big Pens
By Ciaran Ormond, Partners in Pork - This paper, presented at the January 2003 Banff Pork Seminars, discusses the experiences with changing over to large pen sizes for nursery barns.

"Psychological heating" - An expensive mistake
By Digby Scott, National Pig Association - This article is based on Nick Bird's case study "Gas use on a US breeding unit" and looks at why altering the temperature and ventilation settings for pig buildings can create unnecessary heating bills.

Water Systems - Troubleshooting common mistakes
By John Carr, DPM, PhD, Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine, Iowa State University - This article looks at the findings of a field study undertaken to identify the problems in drinking systems and explains how enhancing...

Using pig behaviour to optimize pen design
By Bernard Peet, Pork Industry Consultant, Lacombe, Canada. In these days of fully slatted pen floors, there is a tendency to think that pen shape and layout is less important than when part slatted and solid floors were more widely used. If pigs dung...

Barn Wash/Disinfection Trials
By Dr. Dan Hurnik, Industry Chair for Swine Research - Washing of pens or barns has become a routine part of pig production. The reasons are numerous, but the main one is that washing removes bacteria, viruses and parasites left behind from the previous...

For Pigs, Size Really Does Matter
By Bernard Peet, Pork Industry Consultant, Lacombe, Canada. Pigs in intensive production systems rely on us to provide for all their needs, whether this be related to space, temperature, light, feed or water.

Cutting costs with multi-size penning
By Norman Dunn - Better Pork Magazine - Large hog production units in Denmark, as elsewhere, aim for as uniform a batch of pigs as possible per feeding pen. But costs per hog feeding place spiral for smaller enterprises trying to follow this system. With...

The long, winding road to obtain planning permission
By Norman Dunn, Better Farming Magazine (Ontario) - Germany and Denmark are taking two different paths to hog barn approvals. Just as in Canada, growing environmental awareness in most parts of Europe is forcing farmers to conform to a bewildering number...

Diagnosing Common Water-System Problems
By Jim Carlton, Pork Magazine - Improving the quality and delivery of water to pigs may not be the answer to perfect herd-health, but it can lead to healthier pigs and more efficient production.

Hoops vs. Confinement: Comparing the Economics
By Jane Messenger, Pork Magazine - While the results tend to favor confinement facilities when compared annually, hoop structures can be competitive in certain situations

The Rearing and Finishing Herd
By Livestock Knowledge Transfer, UK - This article is the second of two reports on "The EU Directive On Pig Welfare" and looks at the implications for future housing designs including health aspects

The Breeding Herd
By Livestock Knowledge Transfer, UK - This article is the first of two reports on "The EU Directive On Pig Welfare" and looks at the key changes for the breeding herd