Stall equipment for your farrowing sows

Keeping farrowing sows and piglets in good, professional housing is a key condition for a successful farm. Comfort, animal welfare and ease of use are central to all our solutions.

We offer three types of farrowing pens:

• Fixed farrowing pens
• Balance farrowing pens
• Free farrowing pens

Fixed farrowing pens

Fixed farrowing pens have a fixed, immovable floor. The sow and the piglets share the same space, with no height difference. Depending on the application, you can choose between an American or European model.

American model

This type has a height adjustable bar at the bottom. Depending on the size of the sow, you can easily lower or raise the bottom bar. The width of the farrowing pen is also adjustable. Key features of this American model: plenty of space to lie down and, as a result, good accessibility to the udder for the piglets.

European model

The European model of the farrowing pen is wider than the American model. This type of farrowing pen is also width adjustable. This model of farrowing pen features vertical bars, which ensure the sow does not roll out of the pen. For this reason, the horizontal bar is positioned slightly higher than with the American model.

Balance farrowing pens

Balance farrowing pens are equipped with a mechanical switch. If the sow stands up, for example to eat, the mechanism is activated and the floor is raised by approximately 25 centimetres. As soon as the sow lies down again, the sow area is lowered to its normal level. This minimises the risk of the sow crushing her piglets, reduces mortality rates and avoids any loss of revenue. We can naturally manufacture customised movable farrowing pens.

Free farrowing pens

The pig farming sector is seeing a rising demand for farrowing systems that offer sows freedom to move. In fact, free farrowing pens are now part of current legislation and regulations in many European countries or will be incorporated in the future. In addition to hygiene and animal welfare, the technical performance and financial results are fundamentally important for pig producers.

A free farrowing pen allows sows more room for movement than a fixed pen. Installing free farrowing pens has led to positive improvements in animal welfare, resulting in higher production of better quality milk. This in turn has boosted piglet quality, with weaning weights that are approximately 900 g higher.

What are the potential negative consequences of this housing system? A notable disadvantage is the higher risk of piglet mortality caused by crushing in free farrowing pens. Van Osch has responded to this by designing the pen environment to influence the behaviour of the sow and piglets. When designing free farrowing pens, aspects such as the safety for the stockperson, ease of working, lying behaviour of the sow, escape zones for the piglets, anti-crush bars and piglet nests play a crucial role. Free farrowing pens are available with fixed and movable floors.

Feeders and floors

We supply various types of feeders and troughs of different dimensions and materials, as well as solutions for water pipes and dry and liquid feed. The flooring for the pen is available in various materials, such as comfortable, low maintenance coated plastic floors for piglets and triangular steel and cast iron floors for sows.

More information about our drinkers and water pipes? Click here

Quality: advice

Our method is simple and easy: you can come to us with a basic sketch or global impression of what you want. We consider your wishes and start to draw up a concept. At this stage, we examine the various components critically to see where improvements, cost reductions or smarter strategies can be implemented. We inform you of our findings. Not to press our point, but because we like to go a step further to deliver benefits for you. This is how we guarantee premium quality equipment for pig houses, time and again.

Innovative equipment

Legislation and regulations that govern equipment in pig houses are subject to continuous amendments. To ensure the continuity of healthy business operations, an innovative partner and supplier is essential. To remain innovative, we constantly adapt our insights and continuously improve our products