Farrowing crates are widely used in commercial practice but restrict sow movement. Pens have therefore been developed which allow the sow greater freedom of movement but this may result in piglets being exposed to events likely to cause injury or death due to crushing. This is particularly the case immediately after farrowing. The behaviour of sows during lying and piglet aggregation behaviour may be factors contributing to these problems. We therefore wished to compare these behaviours and production performance in crates and oval pens.

The subjects were 18 Large White x Landrace sows; 10 farrowed in crates and 8 in oval pens (balanced for parity and time of year; c. half farrowed Aug. - Nov. 1996 and half April - July 1997). Sows entered the accommodation five days before the farrowing date. Feeding was manual, daily at 08.00h and 15.00h. Crates and oval pens were cleaned and shavings (crate) or straw (pen) were added daily. There was a piglet drinker in each accommodation and creep feed was available 14 days post-partum. Piglets were teeth-clipped and iron-injected within 48h post-partum.