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Majority of U.S. sows spend time in gestation stalls: survey
Story Date: 6/7/2012
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Source: MEATINGPLACE, 6/7/12
Only 17.3 percent of sows spend a portion of gestation in open pens, according to a survey by University of Missouri exention economist Ron Plain. The results were issued Wednesday at the World Pork Expo, the annual trade show of the National Pork Producers Council.
Plain surveyed pork operations with 1,000 or more sows. He received responses from 70 operations, which collectively about 3.6 million of the nation’s 5.7 million sows.
The survey found that 20.2 percent of sows on operations of 1,000-9,999 sows, 18.9 percent on operations of 10,000-99,999 and 16.4 percent on operations of more than 100,000 are in open pens for some portion of gestation. When asked about plans to put more sows in open pens, the largest operations indicated that 23.8 percent of their sows would be in open pens in two years, operations of 10,000-99,999 sows would have 21.3 of their pigs in such pens and operations of 1,000-9,999 would have 20.7 percent.
NPPC noted that an operation may use both individual and open pen, or group, housing and that sows on some operations may spend time in both systems.
The group said the results confirm NPPC’s concerns about decisions by food companies to use pork only from operations that are gestation-stall free. NPPC notes the difficulty and cost of sorting, segregating and tracing product to meet the requirements of customers who demand pork from stall-free producers. The organization also contends that individual housing provides the best care.
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