Loose house farrowing systems – where do we start?

From an animal welfare standpoint, much focus has been placed on assessing how the sow’s environment during farrowing can negatively or positively impact welfare for the sow. This has been primarily focused on improving the ability for the sow to perform nest building (a complex set of behaviours driven by hormonal regulation and environmental feedback). To do this, the design of the farrowing crate has changed with greater freedom of movement provided by larger pens and substrate such as str