As expected, sow behaviour post-farrowing varied between sows. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the immediate post-farrowing period in the sows studied here was spent with sows lying on their sides. In this study, sows did not prefer lying on one side or the other.
Time spent by sows in a standing position, which is considered a high-risk period for suckling pigs, varied from 40 seconds (1% of any 24-hour period) to 4 minutes and 45 seconds (8% of any 24-hour period). Sows that were hand fed tended to spend more time standing compared to sows that were fed ad lib. The difference may have been due to the presence of the producer on Farm B entering the farrowing room with the feed cart and creating a disturbance that did not occur under the free choice feeding system on Farm A. This study could not determine whether encouraging sows to stand in the immediate post-farrowing period such as occurred in Farm A was an overall benefit or detriment to sow and pig health and welfare.
