June 11, 2014

Cargill US to provide group housing for sows

Cargill, one of the largest pork producers in the United States, is moving to group housing for its sows that produce hogs for pork.

Company owned facilities will be fully group housing by the end of 2015, while contract hog farms that contain Cargill-owned sows will transition to fully group housing by the end of 2017. The hogs produced by Cargill-owned sows represent about one third of the total hogs harvested yearly at the company's two pork processing facilities in Illinois and Iowa.

Cargill's US pork operation has maintained 50% group housing for company owned sows over the past several years. The company's 2011 acquisition of an idled hog farm complex in the Texas Panhandle is allowing Cargill to achieve 100% group housing for its gestating sows. Over the past three years, Cargill has invested more than US$60 million in the purchase and improvement of the 22,000-acre property near Dalhart, Texas, including the construction of sow barns containing group housing and conversion of existing sow housing from the type known as stalls/crates.

"Over the past two years, many of our retail, foodservice and food processing customers have made decisions about future sourcing of pork products from suppliers that use group housing for gestating sows," stated Mike Luker, president of Wichita-based Cargill Pork. "While Cargill was a pioneer in the use of group housing for gestating sows dating back more than a decade, in the past few years growing public interest in the welfare related to animals raised for food has been expressed to our customers and the pork industry."

"Both group housing and individual housing have pros and cons, and we continue to learn, and evolve best practices from our transition to group housing," explained Luker. "While an industry change of this magnitude is challenging and costly, we believe it is the right thing to do for the long term future of pork production in the US, and our customers agree with us and support our decision. Nevertheless, we need to be mindful that many family farms involved with raising hogs have their life savings invested in their operations and it will require time and other resources if they choose to make a conversion to group housing."

Cargill is one of more than 60 companies that have made similar moves, including McDonalds and Costco, according to the Humane Society of the United States.