Floor space, loose lactation and nursing capacity

It is very tempting to keep the same footprint per sow when changing from farrowing crates to loose lactation, because if we can keep the same footprint – we can keep the same herd size and the modifications are not so big. Pig welfare expert Dr Vivi Aarestrup Moustsen had a thought experiment and shares the outcomes. Dr Yuzhi Li recently visited me. She is a professor of swine behaviour and welfare from the University of Minnesota, USA. One of her questions was: could we provide smaller fl