If you work in a sow barn, when is the last time you stopped to consider the feelings of the ladies you spend your days
with?
This isn’t simply an attempt to get your attention. How your sows feel has a direct impact on how they act and react; and how they feel, act and react to their environment will significantly impact their reproductive performance.

December offers a great excuse to pause and reflect on the past year. With that in mind, we have compiled a list of our favorite blogs from 2017 and why we love them; just in case you missed them the first time around!

Canadian pork production is undergoing a lot of changes as a result of the National Sow Housing Conversion Project. The NSHCP is a collaborative research project that was developed to share information with producers, and ease the transition to group housing by providing education and research on best practices. Dr. Jennifer Brown is the project leader of the NSHCP and she and her team are working on the front lines with these producers. Over the next few months we will be exploring some of Dr. Brown's work. Learn more about her background and research below. 

We often find overlap between our work life and our personal life. For us, and maybe for you, we see lots of connections between managing pigs on the farm and everyday life. We recently posted an article on how sows are like our in-laws, and it got me thinking about another connection I see every day - how being a good father and a good husband relates directly to successfully managing loose sow housing.

Hear from Kristina Horback on her latest research, identifying pig personalities and how they relate to aggressive behaviors in a group gestation pen.