Coming soon: Webinar about free farrowing
Whether producers are in California, the EU or New Zealand – soon they will be confronted with the next step in animal welfare legislation: to give sows freedom of movement during farrowing and lactation. What are essential do’s and don’ts when converting to a free farrowing/ free lactation system? Soon, a Pig Progress webinar will zoom in on what science has to say, supported with a testimonial from a pig producer who can share his ideas.
Register here for webinar on November 24
The webinar, to be held on Wednesday, November 24, will be broadcasted live from Amsterdam, the Netherlands at 3pm CET. The webinar is fully titled “Free farrowing: Alternatives to the farrowing crate.” Essential in the webinar will be the lessons learnt at the scientific workshop series “Freedom in Farrowing and Lactation,” attended by leading pig welfare scientists from all over Europe, as well as Canada, USA, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
What will farrowing systems of the future look like?
In a practical session, oriented at swine producers, the surrounding industries as well as politicians, the team will share their main answers to the question: “If farrowing crates will disappear, then what will farrowing systems of the future have to look like?”
In total 3 scientific and practical speakers will be highlighting the findings in this webinar.
Global overview of farrowing legislation
Dr Emma Baxter is senior researcher at the Scotland’s Rural College, in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. She will kick off with a global overview of the political situation and farrowing legislation. She will discuss the situation in the European Union with regard to the initiative “End the Cage Age.” She will also discuss progress in countries like Switzerland, Sweden and Norway, where legislation regarding freedom for sows has already been established.
Alternatives to farrowing crates
Next on stage will be Vivi Aarestrup Moustsen, PhD. She is chief scientist at the Danish pig research centre SEGES and also a regular columnist at Pig Progress. She will zoom in on key decisions and choices when deciding on alternatives to farrowing crates. She will discuss what science so far has found about all kinds of questions, like what should be the ideal pen size, should sows be temporarily confined – or not, what flooring to choose, how to manage litter size and what could be daily work routines?
Her presentation also includes pen layout regarding functional areas for the sow, piglet safety, and being safe and efficient to work in – and it includes aspects like environmental impact, green-house gases and pig welfare.
Experiences from a pig producer
Now what does all this mean in practice? To also share some first-hand information, the webinar will also include a pig producer testimonial. Asger Krogsgaard is a pig producer from Denmark. He will share his experiences with keeping sows loose during lactation and explains what choices he had – and why he would do it again, in case he was given the choice to start all over. His presentation will include 3 top tips how to proceed with free farrowing.
Starting time of the “Free Farrowing” webinar
The webinar, which is supported by livestock equipment companies Skiold, Schauer and Vereijken will start at 3pm CET and will last for 60-75 minutes. That time corresponds to the following times:
- San Francisco, CA, United States: 6am
- Des Moines, IA, United States: 8am
- New York, NY, United States: 9am
- São Paulo, Brazil: 11am
- London, UK: 2pm
- Kyiv, Ukraine: 4pm
- Moscow, Russia: 5pm
- Bangkok, Thailand: 9pm
- Beijing, China: 10pm
- Tokyo, Japan: 11pm
- Darwin, NT, Australia: 11.30pm
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WP Admin 
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