Transitioning from Stalls to Pens: Two large production systems share experiences of transitioning from gestations stalls to pens

摘要

One made the transition voluntarily; the other by law. Day zero for phasing out of gestation stalls for Smithfield Foods was Jan. 25, 2007, when they announced their intent to eliminate gestation stalls within 10 years in favor of loose sow housing for their company-owned sow farms.The motivation behind the corporate decision to eliminate gestation stalls was feedback from their customer base. The task of the conversion fell to Murphy-Brown, LLC, the production arm of the corporate food giant. The clock began ticking and the timeline was relatively short to decide which sow housing technology would replace the stalls, explains Chris Rademacher, DVM, of Murphy-Brown West, headquartered in Ames, IA.