Benefits and challenges of the on-farm implementation of measures aimed at integrating aspects of sustainability into pig fattening

In the course of a PhD-project measures were developed, implemented and evaluated, which aim at integrating aspects of sustainability into pig fattening. The selected measures comprise an increase of space allowance for the animals, provision of straw as enrichment material, omission of tail docking, use of GMO-free feedstuffs and improvement of animal health monitoring by reporting slaughterhouse findings to the farmers. Subsequently, these measures were implemented on three (currently operating) pig fattening farms in Austria. The impact of the combination of measures is evaluated regarding animal welfare, economic and environmental aspects as well as taking into account quality of work and life of the farmers using already established scientific methods. This paper specifically addresses the benefits and challenges of implementing the measures on commercial pig fattening farms and how these challenges and problems have been faced in the course of the project. Benefits of on farm research comprise the possibility to include the farmers’ (practical) knowledge and to take into account problems and limitations farmers encounter during their actual work (e.g. limited time for additional work or being dependent on other partners in the production chain like breeders or abattoirs). This aspect holds especially true for projects with an applied focus and helps to improve the applicability of results. One of the main challenges lies in creating a ‘flexible’ study design, which can be adapted to varying on-farm conditions on the one hand (e.g. one farm’s breeder did not want to omit tail docking) and is still strong enough to produce sound scientific results on the other hand. In this project, the study design was therefore adapted for each individual farm to meet all these requirements. Moreover, it is important to be able to react to and take into account unforeseeable changes or problems on the farms e.g. by preparing a decision tree for what to do in the case of a tail biting outbreak. Additionally, the farmers’ motivation and interest in the project as well as interpersonal relations play an important role and can sometimes be a huge challenge for the success of such a project. Hence, trust-building measures like the joint formulation of contracts and confidentiality agreements were taken.