Hierarchy positions in groups of sows are settled relatively quickly, though long term stability can be affected by several\u00a0factors including method of feeding. Fighting is less intense between pigs of unequal sizes, may be reduced by previous\u00a0exposure but is less affected by the presence of a boar. Larger groups have more hierarchy positions to resolve and therefore\u00a0more fighting. Greater space allowance appears to have little effect on fighting at mixing but can reduce aggression in the\u00a0longer term. Barriers can limit aggression by allowing losers to escape more easily. Provision of ad libitum feed has been\u00a0shown to reduce aggression over the short term. Straw bedding has no effect on fighting. Chemical intervention techniques\u00a0would appear to delay rather than reduce fighting. Newly mixed sows should be supervised to reduce fighting. The fighting\u00a0which occurs during mixing results in physiological stress responses which can have detrimental effects on reproductive\u00a0parameters. However, the short-term nature of this response means that detrimental effects can be avoided by careful timing\u00a0of regrouping. It is therefore possible to achieve equally good reproductive performance in group-housing systems as in\u00a0systems with individual housing, provided that good management is practised.<\/p>\n
Sandra Edwards<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hierarchy positions in groups of sows are settled relatively quickly, though long term stability can be affected by several\u00a0factors including method of feeding. Fighting is less intense between pigs of unequal sizes, may be reduced by previous\u00a0exposure but is less affected by the presence of a boar. Larger groups have more hierarchy positions to resolve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,928],"tags":[26096,46,108,14,26341,26222,27281],"class_list":["post-15150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pork-insight-articles","category-welfare","tag-edwards","tag-feed","tag-feeding","tag-pig","tag-sandra-edw","tag-sandra-edwards","tag-welfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15153,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15150\/revisions\/15153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}