Page 3 of articles about sow in Swine news

The Minister accordingly announced that he is increasing the current investment ceiling of €300,000 per holding to €500,000.

The bill S.2191/H.7180, legislation that prohibits the extreme confinement of breeding pigs and veal calves in small crates passed the Senate and House.

A survey conducted by the University of Missouri on behalf of the National Pork Producers Council shows only about 17 percent of sows in the U.S. are currently housed in open pen gestation.

In recent years, a growing number of major U.S. companies that demand and supply pork products have adopted strategies that explicitly move away from direct or indirect use of gestation crates in pork production.

The Commission has stepped up calls on Member States to ensure that the ban on individual sow stalls is fully applied from 1 January 2013.

The aim of this report is to improve understanding by setting out the latest progress towards implementation and enforcement of the regulations and by developing scenarios for the market situation both before and after implementation.

The Australian pork industry’s voluntary move away from the use of sow stalls by 2017, is making substantial progress, with around one in three sows now spending their pregnant lives sow stall free.

Only 12 Member States have confirmed that they expect their producers to be fully compliant with the new regulations by the end of the year.

Details from the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) show a decrease of 1.20% in the number of sows.

Hog inventories were reported at 12.0 million head, up 1.1% from 11.9 million on January 1, 2011 and higher by 1.6% from the same date in 2010.

Following a ruling by the European Court of Justice in December, it has been confirmed that the expression 'places for sows' in IPPC must be interpreted as including places for gilts that have already been served, but have not yet farrowed.

The report “Piglet mortality in Denmark” published in 2010 described a number of alternatives for reducing the mortality rate. These various alternatives are also mentioned in a new report published in January 2012.

Research undertaken in 2010 indicated that 70% of Danish producers now comply with EU legislation effective from January 2013, which will ban the use of traditional stalls for pregnant sows.

Just under 36% of Flemish sow farms have so far converted, with an additional 13% having plans to do so.

Scientists from Aarhus University’s Research Centre Foulum have developed a pig model that can provide answers to how pregnant and lactating sows should be fed to improve their milk production. The model, which is the first of its kind in the world, is expected to provide knowledge that makes it possible to reduce piglet mortality.

VEVA proposes the voluntary reduction of sows by 20%, going from 500.000 actual sows to 400.000.