Modified Werribee Farrowing Pens in a hoop shelter

Modified Werribee Farrowing Pens
in a hoop shelter
Hugh Payne
Sandy, Annette and Richard Gardiner
Greg Cronin
Emalyn Loudon
The Werribee Farrowing Pen (WFP)
• WFP designed by Dr Greg Cronin
(Animal Welfare Science Centre)
• Meets behavioural needs of the sow and
provide safe areas for piglets
• Consists of two compartments
1. Nest area
2. Utility area (dunging, feeding &
drinking)
• Requires double the floor space of a
farrowing crate
Early prototype
Werribee Farrowing Pen
WFP field trials (1997)
• WFP compared to Procter
farrowing crates
• Uninsulated grower shed
• Solid floor nest area with narrow
part-slatted utilities area
• „Proctor‟ crates on elevated
full-mesh floors
Results
WFP
Crate
39
48
Parity of Sows
3.20
3.4
Total piglets born per sow
11.6
11.8
Born alive per sow
10.9
10.8
Stillborns per sow
0.7
1.0
Pre-weaning deaths
2.1
2.0
Weaned per sow
9.0
9.1
Pre-weaning mortality (%)*
18.5
19.0
No. of sows
*deaths before weaning
born alive x 100 (from Pig Research Report DV141/1142)
Main conclusions from trial
•
•
•
•
•
•
Piglet survival similar
Slightly lower stillbirths in WFP
Fewer medications in WFP
Sows in WFP ate 0.7 kg/d more
WFP required double floor space
WFP require new management
skills
Upshot
No uptake of WFP because of:
• Producer concerns about
productivity
• Greater expense
• Higher labour input
• Easier sow management in crates
• Lack of regulatory pressure
• No market signals
The West Australian 14
November 2006
• Comments include:
– Kept on bare concrete
– Cannot turn around
– Legs and teats sprawl
through metal bars
– Unlikely to see daylight or
feel earth under their
trotters
– Reduced maternal
behaviour
– Lack of straw reduces
natural behaviours and
leads to distress and
frustration
– Although legal, industry
prefers that consumers
don‟t know about these
practices
• Article is a mix of fact and
emotive statements
Farmers Guardian, Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Waitrose To Abolish The Use Of All Farrowing
Crates
UK - Waitrose has announced that it is to phase
out the use of farrowing crates from all its British
and Danish pig farms supplying the group with
bacon.
Over the past six months Waitrose has been working to make sure that all its
Danish bacon is produced from pigs born outdoors.
The supermarket has already abolished the use of farrowing crates for all its
English bacon, sausages and pork four years ago – switching to meat from pigs
born outdoors in straw-bedded huts.
Waitrose‟s meat buyer Ms Jane Clarke compared farrowing to the inhumane
treatment of battery farmed chickens.
Farrowing crates are the pig industry‟s equivalent to battery farming with sows
kept in a confined space without the freedom to express natural behaviour.
Concerns about using WFPs
• May not be economic for many intensive
producers because of extra space
requirement
• Reported pre-weaning mortality levels are
high
• WFPs not yet evaluated in low-cost
structures
The WA WFP project
• In Collaboration with Greg Cronin (Animal
Welfare Science Centre):
– Design and install 2 modified WFPs in existing
shelter
– Evaluated prototypes over three seasons
– Finalise design
– Install 10 more crates
– Record productivity of 13 batches of 24 sows in
WFP and farrowing crates (N = 312)
– Collate and analyse data
– Final report
Shelters at the WA Pig Skills Centre
Conventional farrowing rooms
Changes to original WFP design
• Sloping floor with 3% fall from centre
passageway to side drain
• Underfloor heating in nest area
• Feeder moved to front of nest area
• Heated creep box provided
• Breeze-way created in utility area
• Provision for removable gate to confine sow
• Two modified WFPs built and installed for testing
over summer, autumn and early winter
Preliminary sketch plan
Overcoming low air
temperatures
• Danish research* on farrowing pens in
rooms kept at 22 C reported:
– 15.7% PWM from 0-7 days, no floor heating
– 8.7% PWM from 0-7 days, with floor heating
• Based on this evidence, we decided to
install underfloor heating in modified WFP
* From Malmkvist et al.
99 (2006) 88-105
Applied Animal Behaviour Science
The ‘prototype’ modified WFPs
Further design changes
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Front & rear gates widened
Feeder section simplified
Replaced some mesh with horizontal bars
Posts extended & capped
Creep box entrance made smaller & offset
Crush bars reconfigured
“Ikea” design concept…only spanner and drill
required for installation
• Did we get it right? No!
Modified WFP
1200
300
Heated creep box
600
200
Heat lamp
Gate
Entrance
Drinker
600
Removable gate
450
Crush
barriers
250 high
barrier
Sow feeder
Nest area with under floor
heating
100 mm deep
open drain
750
Gate
Gate
200
2400
500
1000
Caution
• Modified WFP designed to fit into existing
shelter
• Design may be sub-optimal
• Issues
– Size (?larger than necessary)
– Floor totally solid (? Prefer slotted floor in nonnest area
– Open drain (avoid!)
– Labour to clean out
Layout of pens
Management changes to
improve performance
• Confine sows first 24 hours
• Review cross-fostering practices
• Culling policy - old sows less
suited to WFP
• Remove compromised piglets
Pre-farrowing mode
Redundant
Farrowing mode
Gap too
small!
Farrowing mode
Lactation mode
Sow productivity
No. of litters
Average parity
Total piglets born
Born alive
Stillborn
Mummified
Pre-weaning deaths
Weaned per litter
PWM (%)
Crate
156
4.3
11.9
11.0
0.9
0.33
0.8
10.2
WFP
156
4.3
11.8
11.0
0.8
0.15
1.2
9.8
Sig.
6.3
10.2
***
**
**
***
Sow performance
Sows
Crate
WFP
Wt. at 112 d (kg)
227
239
Wt. at weaning (kg)
206
223
Weight loss (kg)
-24
-21
P2 at 112 d (mm)
16.6
15.6
P2 at weaning (mm)
15.1
14.5
Backfat loss (mm)
-1.5
-1.1
Feed intake (kg/d)
5.2
5.7
Wean to mate (d)
5.9
6.6
Sig.
***
Piglet mortality
Crate
WFP
No. of litters
156
156
Total born alive
1716
1713
Total deaths
116
182
Crushed
56
125
Other causes
60
57
0.74
1.17
Crushed
0.36
0.80
Other causes
0.38
0.37
Per litter
Total deaths
Seasonal effects
Pre-weaning Mortality (%)
18.00
16.00
14.00
12.00
Av.
10.2%
10.00
8.00
Av.
6.3%
6.00
4.00
2.00
0.00
Autumn
Winter
Spring
FC
WFP
Summer
Piglet performance
Birth wt (kg)
Wean wt (kg)
Wean age (d)
Gain birth-wean (g/d)
Wean wt / wean age
Crate
1.47
5.46
19.4
202
280
WFP
1.43
5.14
19.9
188
263
Sig.
**
**
**
Use indistructable materials!
What did it cost us?
Item
Total per 20 sows
Per Sow place
10,800
540
Floor
9,450
473
Walls
5,000
250
Ends
3,600
180
Floor heating
10,267
513
Pens
52,500
2,625
Feeders
4,000
200
Drinkers
967
48
Creep heaters & controller
3,333
167
Fastenings
1,333
67
Electrics
5,000
250
106,250
5,313
Shelter Kit (25 x 9 m)
Total
Conclusions
• PWM 50% higher in WFP vs FC
• Equiv. to 1 pig less weaned per sow per year
• WFP sows eat more food during lactation
(? higher maintenance v less loss of backfat)
• WFP sows more active and alert after weaning
but no difference in wean to mate interval
• Financial:
• Au$70 lower gross margin per sow per year or
• Au$3 higher COP per weaner or
• Au$0.05 higher COP per kg HSCW
Conclusions
• Adoption will increase COP
• Welfare related changes to production
systems require careful evaluation
• Need to distinguish ‘apparent’ from ‘real’
welfare benefits
• But pressure is on - so be prepared!
Unresolved issues
• Can these results be repeated on a large
scale?
• Will producers develop more cost-effective
and labour efficient systems?
• Is genetic selection for sows more suited to
system possible?
• Can occupational health and safety issues
be addressed?
• Is brand differentiation possible?
• Will consumer pay more?
Last words from the Gardiners
•
•
•
•
•
Cautious approval for WFP
Getting close to a final design
Visible improvement in condition of
weaned sows from WFP
Lots to learn about use of WFP
Optimistic about achieving acceptable
performance
Acknowledgements
•Richard, Sandy & Annette Gardiner, Piggery
Operators
•Emalyn Loudon, Company Secretary, Western
Australian Pig Industry Skills Centre
•Greg Cronin, Animal Welfare Science Centre, DPI
Victoria
•Australian Pork Ltd
•Department of Agriculture and Food WA