News

Missouri’s Murphy Brown going to “free access”

Murphy Brown of Missouri is more than halfway to converting its farms to free access open housing for sows. The subsidiary of Smithfield Foods does not have contract sow producers but owns nearly all of its operations in north Missouri where Bill Homan says they are in the process of converting away from gestation stalls, “A little bit more than half of our farms at this point in time, and I’d say within the next 12 to 18 months our business will be converted to 100 percent free access, what we call free access.”

Homann says that’s another term for group housing, “The system that we’ve been installing up to this point in time kind of gives the sow a choice. She can be in an individual stall or she can back up and she can be in a pen with other sows, other pen mates, if you will.”

Homann tells Brownfield the impact on production has been neutral, “From a production standpoint, I wouldn’t say it’s been a real benefit but it’s not been a negative either. So, the transition’s been, it’s been very smooth.”

Smithfield Foods announced earlier this week that it “recommends” all its contract growers convert to group housing systems for pregnant sows but is less likely to extend contracts for those growers who do not. Smithfield says more than half its company-owned operations have converted and they will be at 100% by 2017.  Homann says about 15% of Murphy Brown of Missouri operators are contract hog finishing operations.