The behavior of gestating swine housed in the Hurnik-Morris system

Abstract

A group housing system for sows, the Hurnik-Morris (HM) system, was developed to address several of the perceived animal welfare limitations of existing housing methods. The HM system permits socially coordinated eating and resting, controlled and socially undisturbed feed intake, physical exercise, and regular exposure to boars. The HM system effectively uses and reinforces the behavioral phenomenon of the social synchronization of feeding and provides a less restrictive housing environment. The system provides housing for sows in small groups and an individual, non-competitive feeding environment using electronic feeding compartments. Gilts reared during gestation in the HM system were observed to spend less time lying in sternal recumbency (31 vs 21%; P = .004) and performing stereotypies (.10 vs .56%; P = .034) and to spend more time participating in social activities (1.4 vs .19%; P = .0007) than similar gilts kept in gestation crates (GC). The HM sows revealed a significantly longer latent period to postprandial lying than did GC gilts (64 vs 32 min; P = .0001). The order of gilt entry into the feeding compartments tended to be more consistent than the sequence of feeding compartments being entered (W = .57 vs .41; P = .06). This indicates that social factors seemed to be more important than spatial ones in determining the order of entry into the feeder compartments.