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Electronic Sow Feeding (ESF): The Lemonade of Pen Gestation
Scientific evidence remains equivocal with regard to what is the best way to house gestating sow. However, 9 U.S. states have joined the precedent of the European Union and instituted legislation to phase out the use of gestational stalls. Concurrently sixty or more large national companies in the retail and food service industry have pledged to eliminate gestation stalls from their supply chain over a 5 to 10 year time horizon. Several packers have also committed to moving some or all of their company owned sows out of stalls and in some instances have also signaled a similar intention for those that supply them with fat hogs. Furthermore in Canada, a new codes of practice was released in July of 2014 that also places restrictions on the use of gestation stalls. Thus, if a producer plans to build new sow facilities and/or plans to stay in the business long enough to re-capitalize their existing sow facilities, they will likely need to confront the decision about whether to continue to work with gestation stalls or explore what is the best option for pen gestation.
While many producers are expressing concern, anxiety and even anger today given the possibility of having to transition from gestation stalls to pen gestation, the goal of this paper is to address some of the possible upside potential available from selected pen gestation options. In particular, electronic sow feeding (ESF) provides the opportunity to capture many advantages previously unrealized in the feeding and management of gestating sows. Individual sows are uniquely and electronically identified with a radio-frequency-identification (RFID) tag. Sows enter the feed station one at a time, their tag is read and they are fed their specified allotment for the day. ESF is the only alternative to gestation stalls that provides true individual animal nutrition. However, this paper will make the argument that ESF is actually a better way to feed an individual sow than a gestation stall. In particular, ESF provides unique opportunities for managing the gestating sow through improved approaches to feed utilization, meeting her nutritional needs, estrus control, individual animal care, and autogenous immunization. Specific examples of each of these opportunities will be discussed in detail.
Keywords: pen gestation, electronic sow feeding, and nutrition