EIP Project Database

Find EIP-AGRI projects in Germany

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Motion pens for farrowing sows in agricultural production systems

Authority

Ministerium für Landwirtschaft, Umwelt und Klimaschutz

Federal State

Brandenburg und Berlin

Contact

Postfach 60 11 50
14411 Potsdam

Website: External link to the authority

Project Title

Motion pens for farrowing sows in agricultural production systems

Project description

Content of the project is the necessity to develop farming systems for farrowing sows in the sense of greater space and offering movement freedom for reasons of animal welfare combined with an increasing efficiency by decreasing piglet mortality, also and especially because of the expected expansion of legal requirements. There are practically suitable barns and bays to be worked out as reconstruction proposals for larger, conventional working farms. These proposals will be presented by means of a pilot plant to the broad farming practice. Further sub-goals are i. e. the improvement of animal welfare in combination with similar developing performance of the animals, the preservation of the economy (including labor economics) with changed farming procedures, the ensuring work safety for the employees and to improve the social acceptance for conventional livestock farming.

Results focusing on practiceorientation

The AG Beyern eG has a sow breeding facility. The farrowing compartments, built according to the former GDR standard, were in need of modernization. In order to improve the animal welfare pens with opening crates should be installed when remodeling the stables. Opening crates allow sows to move after a short period of confinement post-farrowing, preventing piglets to be crushed and overlayed. Supported by the European Innovation Partnership initiative, 4 variants of pens with opening crates (all crates opened 7 days after farrowing) were tested in 11 trials on one farm, with a special focus on piglet losses during the suckling period. It can be concluded, that pens with a square base and greater space allowance for sows provoke higher piglet losses. Significantly fewer piglet losses were observed in the narrow pen variants. An important task in the project was to find solutions for the integration of the new, generously designed pens with opening crates into the old stables. The sta

Key words

Animal husbandry

Main funding source

Rural development 2014-2020

OG contact information

Agrargenossenschaft Beyern eG
Mittelstr. 17
04895 Falkenberg

Phone: 035363-216

Email: ag-beyern@t-online.de

Type of OG partners

  • Farmer
  • Researcher
  • Industry

Begin of project

2016

Project status

completed

Total budget applied for in EUR

431,073

NUTS3 CODE

DE407 Elbe-Elster

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