Transfer of innovation from Denmark to France and Italy: improving outdoors sows housing

– by Martina Re (AIAB)

© Vangaard

Within the PPILOW project, the Work package 2 has the aim to facilitate the change process of the National Practitioners Groups (NPGs) involved and to help the transfer of innovations from experimental Work packages to NPGs. In particular Task 2.3 is dedicated to the scaling up of innovations for improving animal welfare of poultry and pigs at farm level. Innovations have been developed through experiments and reported to National Practitioners Groups. Farmers had the opportunity to show their interest in one or more experiments and ask for implementing the chosen innovation. So far the innovation on the farrowing huts developed by the Danish company Vangaard Staldmontage has been required by different farmers in France (2 farms) and Italy (2 farms). Pig farmers are interested in improving the management of farrowing sows outdoor: piglets management, pigs rotation, sows welfare and health are of prior interest in organic farming and low input farming. The new Danish farrowing huts are characterized by a new design structure that will address the abovementioned issues. Farmers will be asked to test the farrowing huts, monitor and report observations. This process will be carried out with a simple protocol and it will be replicable in other contexts. In the following months we will establish the pig farrowing huts and report the first results and observations. Once PPILOW experiments on levers for welfare improvement will be concluded, the WP2 will try to facilitate the transfer of these new practices and innovations through NPGs facilitators.