One-on-one group housing workshop at World Pork Expo 2018

Bring your sow housing questions to World Pork Expo and meet one-on-one with other pork producers. Whether you’re thinking about building new or remodelling your existing stall barn into group pens, your peers are ready to share their experiences
calendar icon 17 May 2018
clock icon 3 minute read

Three US pork producers will be available to answer questions about group housing. They can speak to what to look for in a sow management system to positively impact feed use, labour efficiency, sow behaviour and more.

Each of these individuals owns or manages facilities that have transitioned from gestation stalls to group gestation pens with electronic sow feeding systems, automated sow separation and automated heat detection. They have experience in both new buildings and remodelling barns. They will be available from 1 to 3 pm on Wednesday, 6 June, in the Nedap Livestock Management US booth, V525, at World Pork Expo.

Left to right: Tim Friedel, Chet Mogler and Steve Horton.

Thomas Livestock Company

Tim Friedel and Steve Horton are the production manager and sow service manager at Thomas Livestock Co. of Broken Bow, Nebraska. Less than 10 years after building a barn, the team at Thomas Livestock pulled the gestation stalls and built group pens with automated sow feeding and management.

“From both the sows’ and workers’ points-of-view, the barn is a fresher, friendlier place to work. This results in a more productive business for us, and we know it’s going to pay for itself in the long run,” says Friedel.

The recent remodelling project is just one part of the plan to convert the entire Thomas Livestock Co. operation to group sow housing. In addition to the remodel, Thomas Livestock has built a new barn with group gestation pens and plans to build another in coming years.

“We have chosen a system that is worker friendly and helps us with identifying and separating animals as needed,” says Horton. “The gilts and sows are calmer, quieter and move more easily, which helps us in caring for the animals.”

Pig Hill

Chet Mogler and his family built a new facility with the primary goal of creating the best environment for their sows. They chose dynamic, large group pens for 4,400 sows to replace their 900-sow stalled barn at their Pig Hill facility near Alvord, Iowa.

“Our sow behaviour has totally changed, especially at feeding time,” says Mogler. “We never have noisy, high-stress feed drops like we did in stalls. Our sows eat comfortably without competition.”

Friedel, Horton and Mogler will be available Wednesday, 6 June, from 1 to 3 pm in booth V525 at World Pork Expo in Des Moines. Pork producers unable to attend the event may email questions to Brad Carson at [email protected].

To learn more, click here

As reported by Nedap

Emily Houghton

Editor, The Pig Site

Emily Houghton is a Zoology graduate from Cardiff University and was the editor of The Pig Site from October 2017 to May 2020. Emily has worked in livestock husbandry, and has written, conducted and assisted with research projects regarding the synthesis of welfare and productivity of free-range food species.

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