page_title: Intensive pig farming
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Intensive pig farming / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Hog confinement barn interior, slatted floor
context_page_description: Intensive pig farming, also known as pig factory farming is a subset of pig farming and of Industrial animal agriculture, all of which are types of animal husbandry, in which livestock domestic pigs are raised up to slaughter weight. These operations are known as AFO or CAFO in the U.S. In this system of pig production, grower pigs are housed indoors in group-housing or straw-lined sheds, whilst pregnant sows are housed in gestation crates or pens and give birth in farrowing crates.
  The use of gestation crates for pregnant sows has resulted in lower birth production costs; however, this practice has led to more significant animal cruelty. Many of the world's largest producers of pigs use gestation crates but some nations and nine US states have banned and removed these crates. The European Union has banned the use of gestation crates after the 4th week of pregnancy.
context_section_description: Intensive piggeries are generally large warehouse-like buildings or barns with little exposure to sunlight or the outdoors. Most pigs are officially entitled to less than one square meter of space each. Indoor pig systems allow many more pigs to be monitored than traditional methods, ensuring minimum fatalities, lowered cost, and increased productivity. Buildings are ventilated and their temperature regulated.
  Most domestic pig varieties are susceptible to sunburn and heat stress, and all pigs lack sweat glands and cannot cool themselves. Pigs have a limited tolerance to high temperatures and heat stress can lead to death. Maintaining a more specific temperature within the pig-tolerance range also maximizes growth and growth-to-feed ratio. Indoor piggeries have allowed pig farming to be undertaken in countries or areas with unsuitable climate or soil for outdoor pig raising. In an intensive operation, pigs no longer need access to a wallow (mud), which is their natural cooling mechanism. Intensive piggeries control temperature through ventilation or drip water systems.
  The way animals are housed in intensive systems varies, and depending on economic viability, dry or open time for sows can sometimes be spent in indoor pens or outdoor pens or pastures.
  The pigs begin life in a farrowing or gestation crate, a small pen with a central cage, designed to allow the piglets to feed from their mother, the sow, while preventing her from moving around, crushing her children, and reducing aggression. The crates are so small that the pigs cannot turn around.
  Artificial insemination is much more common than natural mating, as it allows up to 30-40 female pigs to be impregnated from a single boar. Workers collect the semen by masturbating the boars, then insert it into the sows via a raised catheter known as a pork stork. Boars are still physically used to excite the females prior to insemination, but are prevented from actually mating.
  When confirmed pregnant, sows are moved to farrowing crates, with litter, and will spend their time in gestation crates from before farrowing until weaning. Injections with a high availability iron solution often are given, as sow's milk is low in iron. Vitamin D supplements are also given to compensate for the lack of sunlight. As the sows’ bodies become less capable of handling the large litter sizes encouraged by the industry, the frequency of stillborn piglets generally increases with each litter. These high litter sizes have doubled the death rates of sows, and as many as 25%-50% of sow deaths have been caused by prolapse. The cycle of impregnation and confinement is repeated for about 3 to 5 years or until the sow succumbs to her injuries, at which point she is then slaughtered for low-grade meat such as pies, pasties and sausage meat.
  10-18% of piglets who are born alive won't make it to weaning age, succumbing to disease, starvation, dehydration, or being accidentally crushed by their trapped mothers. This death toll includes the runts of the litter, who are considered economically unviable and killed by staff, typically by blunt trauma to the head.
  Piglets who survive the first few days of their life are subjected to castration, earmarking, tattooing for litter identification, tail docking, teeth clipping to prevent cannibalism, instability, aggression, and tail biting that is induced by the cramped environment. Because anesthetic is not legally mandated and often economically unviable, these invasive procedures are usually done without any pain killers. While wild piglets remain with their mothers for around 12 to 14 weeks, farmed piglets are weaned and removed from their mothers at between two and five weeks old. They are then placed in sheds, nursery barns or directly to growout barns. While capable of living 10–12 years, most pigs are slaughtered when they are 5–6 months old.
  Grower pigs are usually housed in alternative indoor housing, such as batch pens. Group pens generally require higher stockmanship skills. Such pens will usually not contain straw or other material. Alternatively, a s
caption: Indoor group pens, note the slatted floor designed for waste removal.
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