Legislation around the world is requiring farmers to convert to loose sow housing. As we transition our hog barn designs, we are all learning from one another on how to make group housing more efficient and productive than gestation stall barns. Through our learning and dozens of conversions and new builds, we have found Nedap Electronic Sow Feeding equipment and proper gestation pen design to be the key factors in a successful loose sow housing facility.

This is often one of the first questions we are asked when talking through an ESF group gestation pen design. We completely understand the importance of this question because as producers, you have to monitor your overhead and operating costs closely in order to turn a profit. While there is significant importance behind this question, we challenge everyone to not only focus on the costs in your barn, but also the impact each aspect of your barn has on your production totals. Learn more on how to calculate the value each of your ESF stations add to your production.

Looking to replace your current hog pen panels or putting together a new hog barn design? You have some decisions to make! Take a look at these quick tips to help you through the decision making process.

Putting together a pig barn design is a long and detailed process for you as a producer. You have to weigh your different housing options and how each will affect your production. If you decide to build a barn with Electronic Sow Feeding equipment, it is important to know how the design of your system will affect your animals, your barn staff, and your everyday operations. Proper ESF design will improve efficiency and production while a poor pig barn design will result in a disastrous investment.

I am a graduate student at Kansas State University studying swine nutrition, and I was given the opportunity to conduct research on a sow farm containing NEDAP electronic sow feeders for group gestation pens. Conducting research involving gestating sows can be a daunting task, however with all of the advancements in technology, specifically the use of ESFs, doors are being opened into areas of gestating sow research that have never been explored before.

Early group sow housing pens were known for high levels of aggression among gestating sows. This has been a counter argument on group gestation pens for years, but the amount of sow aggression depends completely on your pen design. To mitigate aggression, we must first know why the animals are aggressive, and then we can understand how to design a hog pen that reduces harmful behavior as much as possible. Hog pen designs have advanced since the early layouts in the 1980s, but there are still, and most likely will always be, aggressive sows in your herd. That is why it is vital to put your pens together with these four guidelines in mind.

Group sow housing barns are not new to the industry, but people are often not sure what it is like inside one of these hog barns. Most of us are familiar with gestation stall barns from either working in one or seeing images of them online and throughout different media. While there are many gestation stall sow housing facilities in North America, the industry is transitioning to loose housing facilities. Get a first hand account of operations inside these facilities by listening to what Janae Metzger from Pig Hill Farms has to say about working in an ESF barn.

Feed costs add up in sow housing, and they quickly take away from your bottom line. Luckily feeding technology has evolved in many ways over the past decade, making it easier to control these costs. By accurately targeting the amount of feed each sow receives, we can also improve her health throughout her life in the barn. Implementing Electronic Sow Feeding is the first step to start controlling feed, but Nedap has also introduced farrowing feeding systems to take it one step further. Automated feeding in your farrowing barn will help you reduce feed waste, keep sows healthy throughout their entire lives, and produce healthier, heavier piglets.

Due to both consumer pressures and the need for improved barn efficiency and reduced feed costs, pork producers in North America are moving towards Electronic Sow Feeding in hog barns. Nedap's automated sow feeding technology has been around since the early 1980s and has since developed into a complete sow management system. Learn more about the evolution of ESF technology from dysfunctional identification collars to fully automated barn management systems.