Hog Farm, Chapter 7: This Mom Has Learned a lot about Gestation Stalls in One Week

I didn’t know what a gestation stall was until about a month before our Hog Farm Tour. Among hog farmers, their veterinarians, and others in the hog industry, they are an acceptable method of sow containment. Among others, not in the hog industry, they have become a controversial topic of great debate.

Animal-rights activists are applying pressure on restaurants, pork retailers, and state legislatures to remove them from use industry-wide. “We the people” are voting on the matter. There is a lot written on the internet by both sides. In this post, I will share what I learned at the hog farm about them and relate it to what I’ve read online in the past week.

But first, this is what I’ve learned about the controversy. Under pressure by animal-rights activists, legislators in nine states have banned gestation stalls (Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, and Rhode Island). Hog production is very low in those states (all nine states make up about 6% of US pork production). By the way, the top five pork producing states are Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Illinois, and Indiana. The stalls are also partially banned (they are allowed to use them for part of the gestation period) in the European Union. Also under pressure from the same activist groups, several restaurant chains have made public statements about phasing out gestation stalls in their supply chain. Under pressure from the animal-rights activists, a couple of the pork retailers have committed to changing to open-pens at their company-owned farms. Company-owned hog farms make up a relatively small percentage of overall production. I saw one figure that said it is in the 20% range.

So, who are the U.S. pork processors? The top five pork retailers in the U.S. are Smithfield Foods, Tyson Foods, JBS Swift, Hormel Foods Corporation, and Cargill Meat Solutions (Excel Corp.). As of this writing, I’ve learned that Hormel and Smithfield have announced they will phase out gestation stalls at their company-owned farms.

There are several methods of housing pigs, but the two most common that we learned about on our hog farm tour were the gestation stall and the open-pen. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods of containment.

Open-pen is what the name implies. A group of pigs are contained in one open pen (a minimum square footage is allotted per pig). Disadvantages of the open-pen include the following:

• I’ve learned that pregnant (gestating) sows (400-500 pounds), when placed in a new group, can be aggressive toward one another and try to establish hierarchy in the group. The bigger, older, or more dominant sow usually bullies the younger, smaller, or reserved sow. Pigs have sharp teeth and bite each other. They can cause minor scratches or more major wounds that require medical treatment to prevent infection.
• Feed control is also an issue. The dominant sows will tend to get more feed.
• The farm-hand needs to be well-trained and skilled at working in an open sow pen. It can be a more dangerous work environment. It also takes more skill to individually monitor each sow in a group.

An advantage of the open-pen is the following:

• Freedom of movement. The sow can move about freely and stretch out on her side to lie down.
• The sows can socialize.

Following is how I can best describe the physical characteristics of the gestation stalls at the Gould farm. They are metal. I’ve read they are 2’ x 7’ and I’d say that is about what we saw at the Gould farm. There may be some slight variations in size. The pigs I saw at the Gould farm had room to shift their weight, sit, and lay down. They were not tight against the front or back of the stall. There is a trough at the front of the stall where a rationed amount of food is dropped from a feed tube twice a day. There is a water spout at the feed trough for 24/7 access to fresh water.

The sow lives in the stall for the duration of her pregnancy (gestation), which is about 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days. Then, she is moved to a farrowing crate where she delivers her litter and remains with them for about 3 weeks. After those 3 weeks she moves back to the stall to breed again. Her life-span, on average, is 2 to 2-1/2 years; and she will deliver 2.3 litters each year.

Disadvantages of the gestation stall are the following:

• Some breeds of sow can grow too large for the stall during pregnancy and develop lesions on their sides.
• The most common concern by animal-rights activists is that the sow cannot turn around or walk around in the stall. (Activists accept the open-pen.)

Advantages of the gestation stall are the following:

• It solves the fighting issues of the open-pen to reduce injuries and treatments.
• Sow feed rations are consistent.
• Individual sow care is easier to provide.

The first thing I wondered was, aren’t there studies that prove one system is better for the health of the sow? After digging around on the internet, it seems to me that more study needs to occur to determine how pen configuration affects optimum health and productivity. Most of the studies I read about claim that one is not better than the other in terms of maintaining sow health or productivity.

Then, I wondered if anyone has come up with solutions to the problems by designing a better system. In my online search, I saw a system that has both privacy stalls and open-pen space, and the sow can choose. I also saw an option for a modified stall that may allow for stall expansion for the larger sows.

Different farms use different methods. So, who is right? According to our Farm Moms, both are right and it depends on the farm. According to the Farm Moms, what works at one farm may not work at another farm. We could see, first-hand, that the pen is central to how the farm is operated and managed. It appears to me that it can be considered one of the major risk management tools of an operation (and one of the biggest investments).

The Goulds cited three benefits of the stalls that help them manage the health of their animals. They are the following: consistent sow feed rations for each sow, less injuries, and the ease of daily monitoring and care for each individual sow.

After hearing from several hog farmers on our tour last weekend and seeing the Gould Hog farm, I am convinced that the gestation stalls are a safe and healthy way to house the Gould’s pigs. It works for them. They have healthy and productive animals. 

For more facts, www.pork.org