Farrowing Crate Alternatives: Progress Toward Sow Freedom at Birth

Farrowing crates confine sows during birth and nursing, and viable alternatives demonstrate that sow freedom is compatible with piglet welfare.

Key Facts

Farrowing crates confine sows in a space too small to turn around for 3 to 5 weeks around farrowing.
They were introduced to reduce piglet crushing mortality by restricting sow movement.
Loose farrowing systems including free-farrowing pens and hoop structures allow sow movement and nest-building.
Studies show nest-building behaviour before farrowing reduces farrowing duration and piglet mortality.
Sweden and Switzerland have banned farrowing crates; other EU countries are under pressure to follow.
Skilled stockpersonship in free-farrowing systems can achieve comparable piglet survival to crated systems.
The UK government committed to ending farrowing crate use, with implementation dates under development.

Welfare Considerations

The farrowing crate welfare debate involves genuine tension between sow welfare and piglet survival, but evidence increasingly supports that this trade-off is manageable with appropriate system design and management. Sows in farrowing crates are denied nest-building, a strong pre-parturient motivation whose thwarting causes significant stress and disrupts normal farrowing behaviour. Free-farrowing systems that provide appropriate nest substrate and farrowing pen design have demonstrated comparable or improved piglet survival with dramatically improved sow welfare. The transition requires management investment and stockperson training, but its feasibility is demonstrated by countries that have implemented it at national scale.

What You Can Do

Support pork schemes that have committed to free-farrowing systems with published timelines.
Advocate for national legislation requiring free-farrowing as a minimum welfare standard.
Engage retailers about their supplier farrowing crate phase-out commitments and verification.
Donate to organisations conducting research into optimal free-farrowing system design.
Share evidence on free-farrowing feasibility with producers and policymakers to build confidence in alternatives.