Italy’s long road towards sow group housing

Italy’s pig industry has not been doing great over the last couple of years. High feed prices, low pig prices and a reducing demand for pork make it difficult for pig producers to survive. And on top of that, as the Cerri family have also noticed, Europe’s 2013 deadline for group housing for sows is nearing.   A novel feature is that music is played in the farrowing houses, so that the sows are used to noise and are not upset and lie on the piglets when staff enter the maternity