Saskatchewan group sow housing success highlighted at Banff Pork Seminar

By Lynn Redl-Huntington

Saskatchewan success with group sow housing was highlighted at the 50th Banff Pork Seminar last week. Daryl Possberg, General Manager of Polar Pork Farms, was one of three panelists who spoke at a breakout session on group sow housing at the two day annual conference earlier this month. Possberg was joined by Neil Booth of Maple Leaf Agri-Farms and Marvin Magwood of HyLife to discuss Crate-Free Gestation on January 12th.

Polar Pork Farms began work on group sow housing at its Horizon site with a working group made up of a site manager, production manager, ownership group and contractors to brainstorm. The group, which started work on the project in 2016, came up with a plan where they cut gates at shoulder length, connected back to back stalls every 5th stall to make pens of 10, had common slats between pens, and installed gates on every connection. They re-evaluated after two turns of performance and made adjustments as needed.

“I think it went better than expected,” said Possberg, who has previously been a guest speaker at Banff Pork Seminar. “We were able to implement something that was important for the industry and important for our businesses. We were able to do it in a way that was cost effective and is saving us money in the end.”

To avoid any lost production, the team at Polar Park Farms identified an off-site bio-secure farm where three weeks of newly confirmed pregnant animals were transported, allowing work crews to come in to modify sections of the barns. When each section was complete, pregnant sows were moved back to the completed section, before work crews moved on to the next section.

Possberg estimated that barn rental, trucking, and implementation of pen gestation conversion cost approximately $100/sow. He remains positive about the experience of moving from gestation stalls to open penning. 

“The fear with projects like these is spending money to increase your cost of production and decreasing welfare, said Possberg, who has previously chaired the Banff Pork Seminar advisory committee. “If at all possible, maintain your breeding program, and continue to have those animals raised in an offsite location to reduce your working costs for the conversion.”

“The hardest part was just getting to the point of making the decision. Once we made the decision to go ahead and do it, that was really the big part. Once we made the commitment and decision, the rest of it fell into place.”

Polar Pork Farms have approximately 18,000 sows over seven farm sites with six commercial farms with 90-95 staff.

To date, Saskatchewan has over 54,000 sows in group sow housing. The Canadian Pork Council has estimated that more than 60% of barns in Canada will be stall-free by 2024, according to a report from the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFAAC). A five-year review of the pig code, published last year, says not all producers will be able to convert to open sow housing by 2024. The review committee has recommended that the deadline for the change to code of practice for raising pigs in Canada be pushed back from 2024 to 2029.

 Possberg noted that the changes have brought many positives to their operations. He said that sows in general are more fit for farrowing, there is more “forgiveness” with ventilation, and sorting by size reduces aggression. Possberg did note that sow mortalities are more challenging to manage but, in Polar Pork’s experience, there are fewer. Possberg said that not one manager in the Polar Pork Farms system would go back to the stall gestation system.

“My best advice is to talk to your fellow producers who have gone through this,” offered Possberg, who joined the panel virtually. It’s a big job, there’s no doubt about that. There are many different solutions to this issue. People are willing to share their experiences. Take the best advice that applies to your situation. Don’t be scared of it, it works.”

Banff Pork Seminar was hosted as a hybrid in-person and online event for the first time in its 50 year history. Over 200 delegates attended in person and another 400 attended online.