Survey of management and housing in farrowing quarters among independent and integrated swine farms in Quebec

• Published in: Canadian journal of veterinary research 1996, Vol.60 (1), p.21-28
• Main Authors: Ravel, A, D'Allaire, S, Bigrass-Poulin, M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: age structure; Animal Husbandry - economics; Animal Husbandry - organization & administration; Animal Husbandry - statistics & numerical data; Animals; early weaning; farm size; farm surveys; farrowing houses; Female; Housing, Animal - standards; innovation adoption; lactation number; livestock numbers; livestock production; pig farming; piglets; Quebec; sow feeding; sows; Swine; swine housing
• ISSN: 0830-9000

Forty-eight randomly selected owner-operated swine breeding farms (independent farms) and 38 belonging to 5 integrated organizations specializing in swine production chosen from the largest in the province of Québec (integrated farms) were separately described regarding their general characteristics, sow feeding, management practises, and housing features in farrowing quarters. The parallel description of these 2 groups of farms aids in understanding what is done in the field. It also provides insight into potential differences between independent and integrated farms. Generally speaking, production tended to be more specialized and concentrated in integrated organizations. Specifically, more new practises seemed to have been adopted on the integrated farms, and their stockpersons seemed to have a more proactive style of management in farrowing quarters. Increased size of operations, proximity of information sources, profits yielded by new practises, and ease of implementation are discussed as explanations for this higher rate of adoption of new techniques among the organizations. These differences between the independent farms and the integrated organizations appeared to be all related to basic differences in their respective sizes. Although some differences were observed within, as well as between, each organization, many similarities were found across the majority of farms within each organization, thus supporting the existence of policies specific to each organization. Although these findings have to be confirmed before being generalized, they tend to suggest that independent swine farms and integrated organizations should be considered differently.