Productivity Main Focus of Group Sow Housing Design

Feb 15, 2018

The Manager of Quality Assurance and Animal Care Programs with Manitoba Pork says the more robust the design of the group sow housing system, the fewer problems the producer will have to overcome through management.

"Impact of Loose Sow Housing on Production" was discussed last week as part of the 2018 Manitoba Swine Seminar.

Mark Fynn, the Manager of Quality Assurance and Animal Care Programs with Manitoba Pork, says there are 72 or more possible configurations when designing a group sow housing system and, while there's no one standard configuration, the main goal is to minimize aggression and maximize productivity.

Mark Fynn-Manitoba Pork:

The main factors of productivity that we're really focusing on, a lot has to do with reproduction and making sure that we're achieving good rates of reproduction, making sure we're minimizing the stress on animals during the critical periods so that we're maintaining a healthy pregnancy for those sows, making sure they're getting the nutrition and the amount of feed they need to be able to support those pregnancies.

Really when we're looking at the systems that we're designing and the management practices we put in place, all of it revolves around making sure we support that pregnancy and have good reproduction from that.

Source : Farmscape

Video: Sweetener Effects on Gut Health - Dr. Kwangwook Kim

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Dr. Kwangwook Kim, Assistant Professor at Michigan State University, discusses the use of non-nutritive sweeteners in nursery pig diets. He explains how sucralose and neotame influence feed intake, gut health, metabolism, and the frequency of diarrhea compared to antibiotics. The conversation highlights mechanisms beyond palatability, including hormone signaling and nutrient transport. Listen now on all major platforms!

“Receptors responsible for sweet taste are present not only in the mouth but also along the intestinal tract.”

Meet the guest: Dr. Kwangwook Kim / kwangwook-kim is an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University, specializing in swine nutrition and feed additives under disease challenge models. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Animal Sciences from the University of California, Davis, where he focused on intestinal health and metabolic responses in pigs. His research evaluates alternatives to antibiotics, targeting gut health and performance in nursery pigs.