Sows are housed in gestation stalls during their gestating period for a few big reasons. Those reasons are \u00a0to provide safety to the sows, maintain their health, and also to provide safety to the piglets that they are carrying.<\/p>\n
While there are other methods of housing gestating sows, the one that provides the most safety in my opinion is the gestation stalls. According to Dr. Mark Whitney, who is an assistant professor for University of Minnesota Extension, has a graph in his article that shows how individual stalls has a lower incidence for injures compared to group housing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Gestation stalls are used to help sows that may be struggling health wise. The stalls allows extra feeding to the sows that need it and allows for individual care for the sows. Where as in a pen setting there may be some sows that don’t get enough feed compared to other sows.<\/p>\n Not only is the sows health important, but the unborn piglets health is also important. If the sows are fighting this can cause injuries to the piglets. Mentioned earlier individual stalls allows for the monitored feeding for the gestating sows. With this monitored feeding, it makes sure each individual sow gets appropriate feeding they need, which in turn makes sure the unborn piglets are getting the nutrients they need.<\/p>\n Gestation stalls allows for the extra care of sows and helps to minimize the amount of injuries that can occur in a group housing setting. While yes there are disadvantages for gestation stalls, and advantages for group housing, the main thing to keep in mind is that the health of the sows is what really matters. This is summed up well in the article provided by the We Care Initiative.\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0Individual housing stalls can provide that extra care and individual care to the sows.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n References<\/p>\n We Care Initiative.\u00a0Caring for Sows.\u00a0<\/em>PorkCares.org, 2016.\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a018 Sept. 2016<\/p>\n