National Sow Housing Conversion Newsletter
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Press Releases, Welfare by admin on July 18, 2016
June 2016 Vol. 1, Issue 3
The NSHCP is a four year project, with the goal of providing Canadian pork producers with reliable information on barn renovations and management of group housed sows. This newsletter marks the midpoint of the project which is gathering steam as interest in group housing grows across the country. We look forward to achieving a lot more before project completion in December 2017, and appreciate the role that strong hog markets have played recently. Good returns on production are essential for producers’ confidence in the industry, and the ability to plan for the future.
Doug Richards joined the project team in the fall of 2015, shortly after his retirement as a swine extension specialist for the Ontario Ministry of Agricultural Food And Rural Affairs. Doug has a great background of working with pork producers and Ontario Pork, and many years of experience with the London Swine Conference and other producer events. Now (in semi-retirement), he enjoys the opportunity of seeing barns across the country, and helping producers with the information they need to move forward with group sow housing.
Doug was instrumental in getting the project website up and running (www.groupsowhousing.com). Since the website launch in January 2016, we have made a number of additions, and many more improvements are in the works to make the site as comprehensive as possible. If you haven’t seen it yet, please take a look, we welcome your comments and suggestions!