The Design And Effect Of New Farrowing Crate On Behaviour And Performance Of Sows And Piglets

Farrowing crates were introduced in the 1940s in favour of farrowing pens to reduce crushing of the piglets by the sow, now are prevalent in world. But the farrowing crate confines the activities of sows and reduces sow well-being accordingly, though the crates improves piglets welfare obviously. Since then work has been done to improve the design of farrowing environments. With the care of sow welfare, there have been other alternatives suggested and researched for the farrowing sow, which allow more freedom of movement. Such as ellipsoid, circle, oval, turn-around,sloped, etc.. Although these systems are interesing, welfare issues are just one aspect of a total decision making process involving other factors such as capital cost, performance and ease of management. In china, there were mainly two systems: farrowing pens and farrowing crates, but there were many defects in practice.Objects of this study are to design an alternative system, it is to be widely adopted, should not only improve the welfare of the sow and piglets, but must be economically viable for the producer and easily installed in the availble space. It also should be manageable with the existing staff. Then, we prove it's appliance effect in practice.Two experiments were carried out to design, make new type farrowing crate and to compare the effect in practice.In the first experiment, we have designed, made a new type farrowing crate(2.1 xQ.Vm place in a 2.5x1.5m pen). The cratewas placed inclined in the pen, it had an adjustable side fense, if the side fense opened up, the crate most width 1.5m. sow can loosely turn aroud in it.In the second experiment, this study was intended to describe some fundamental behaviour of sows in new type farrowing crate compared with a conventional rectangular farrowing crate and a farrowing pen. A total of 24 sows and litters (8 for each crate type) were observed. Each sow and litters were observed on day 1 after parturition and on other occasions between day 2 and 35.Sow activity were similar in the new type farrowing crate and the farrowing pen systems, but sow activity in the conventional farrowing crate were less than in the others. Worker in two farrowing crate systems were more than half as productivity as in the farrowing pen. Mortality rates of piglets in the farrowing pen system was 18.48% vs 5.56% vs 5.26% in the conventional farrowing crate and in the new type farrowing crate, and mortality rates of crushing of the piglets by the sow in the farrowing pen system was 6.52% vs 1.39% vs 1.28% and incidence rates of diarrhoea of piglets 64.13% vs 22.22% vs 19.23%. In conclusion, the new type farrowing crate can not only improve the welfare of the sow and piglets, but also beeconomically viable for the producer and easily installed in the availble space, and manageable with the existing staff.