Housing system
Farrowing Crate
Birth and nursing confinement
What it is
A narrow pen holds a sow in place through birth and early nursing. She cannot turn around or walk, while her piglets move in and out through a separate creep area.
Where it sits in the system
Intensive indoor production uses the crate because a sow who cannot move is easy to supervise and unlikely to crush a piglet by lying on one. The alternative costs more space and more management.
Welfare concern
The sow cannot turn, walk, or build a nest for her litter, and the maternal behaviour she is driven to perform is cut off. Prolonged confinement leaves her with frustration, lesions, and weakened muscle.
Worth being precise about
Piglet crushing is a real problem and the crate is a real answer to it. Well-designed free-farrowing systems can protect piglets too, but they demand more space, more design care, and closer management.
