Labor Day has passed. Your Facebook feed is full of friends sharing their kid's back-to-school pictures.  Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back at Starbucks. Fall is here, whether you like it or not. And while we all are going to miss summer, cooler air and changing leaves doesn't have to be a bad thing! Especially when it comes to the best bacon recipes to make this fall. 

Deciding to house and feed sows in group gestation pens is not something to bat an eye at. It's a decision that comes with a lot of work and hours of planning, but the payoff is well worth it. Hear from Chet of Pig Hill Farms on what the process is like when deciding to implement group sow housing from planning to final training to maintenance and ongoing support.

It's Friday, and it's time to loosen up and get ready for the long weekend. What better way than to hear a few jokes?!  If you need a good laugh before you head out today, check out these six pig jokes. P.S. Sorry about the Dad jokes...

It's true, effective group sow housing depends on high quality ESF equipment. But purchasing and installing top of the line equipment does not make your gestation pens instantly efficient and profitable. It goes deeper into the design and support for the system. When talking to an ESF equipment supplier, make sure to ask the following questions.

Move over, beef! Chicken, take a hike! Here comes pork!

Pork has always been a popular meat - back before the explosion of beef, pork was considered the most popular meat because it was so easy to preserve, thanks to salting or smoking. Poultry is now seen as the most popular meat, but pork is threatening to take that away.

Did you know that July is National Picnic Month? If you didn't, that's okay - you still have one day to celebrate (but who really needs a reason to have a picnic). Check out these five BLT recipes to enjoy bacon all summer long, and give your taste buds a kick with these not-so-ordinary bacon, lettuce, and-tomato sandwich. 

Biosecurity is a huge topic when drawing up new hog barn designs. Keeping barns clean and free of disease keeps your herd healthy. Many hog pen panels are now designed with polypropylene rather than PVC for a wide variety of reasons, one of which is hygiene and disease resistance. Using polypropylene panels rather than PVC throughout your facilities—not just in your sow pens—can help improve your biosecurity to keep your herd healthy.

Using polypropylene panels in places such as shower rooms, break rooms, and transition areas can help keep your hog barn free of disease.  

How long does it take a group of sows to develop a social hierarchy? Do the pigs struggle getting used to group pens and Electronic Sow Feeding? When implementing group sow housing for the first time, quite a few questions about feeding sows and animal behavior arise. We want to help answer those questions! So we compiled a few answers to some of the common questions we hear into an easy to digest graphic.

Those unfamiliar with well-designed group housing for sows may think that a large open pen will be prone to stress, higher disease rates and an increase in general health problems. With good hog barn designs, sows are actually maintaining good health in loose housing. It's easier than you might think. 

Everybody who has watched Charlotte's Web or Milo and Otis loves pigs, and who can blame them? These cute and highly intelligent creatures have a way of making people fall in love. But there is also a lot of things that the movies don't include in their picture of pig care. You might only understand these 10 things if you work in a swine barn.