Researchers Compare Performance of Gestating Sows Mixed Under Static and Dynamic Mixing

Preliminary findings of a study conducted by the Prairie Swine Centre indicate the performance of group housed gestating sows to be relatively equal under dynamic versus static mixing scenarios

In response to concerns related to aggression in sows under group housing, researchers with the Prairie Swine Centre in partnership with Swine Innovation Porc compared static groups of gestating sows to dynamic groups.

Dr. Jennifer Brown, a Research Scientist Ethology with the Prairie Swine Centre, says the performance of static groups of 25 sows mixed after breeding and dynamic groups of 25 where about eight sows were removed and added each month were compared to a control group.

“If you had a system such as ESF where maybe some sows didn’t have access to the feeder, that might have impacted them more, but by controlling that feeding factor we didn’t find any problems related to dynamic mixing” 

“So far, we’ve found that there were not a large number of differences in terms of the lesions and certainly the dynamic sows didn’t appear to have any disadvantages in terms of aggression or lesions. In fact, the dynamic sows put on a little bit more backfat during gestation than the control sows. That was a bit surprising.

“In terms of farrowing rate, we did find that the static group suffered the most. We had some seasonal abortions and other issues so the farrowing rate was actually poorest in the static group. In terms of litter production there were no real differences in the litter size, total born, stillborn, those sorts of numbers.

“Based on that information we didn’t find problems related to the dynamic mixing itself.

“At our Prairie Swine Centre facility, we have a free access stall system. We did move the sows and lock them out of the stalls, so they were in a group all day but they all were fed at once in the morning so we knew that all sows were fed each day.

“If you had a system such as ESF where maybe some sows didn’t have access to the feeder, that might have impacted them more, but by controlling that feeding factor we didn’t find any problems related to dynamic mixing.”

Dr. Brown says, if it’s well managed, dynamic mixing will not be a problem for producers and offers some advantages such as efficient use of space and precision feeding.

 

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