Dynamics of Sows' Activity Housed in Farrowing Pens with Possibility of Temporary Crating might Indicate the Time when Sows Should Be Confined in A Crate before the Onset of Farrowing.

One way to reduce the negative impact of farrowing crates on sow welfare is to limit confinement of sows from the onset of farrowing until the end of the critical period of piglets' life a few days after farrowing. In order to provide an indication of the time when sows should be confined in crates, ear tag-based acceleration data was modeled to provide the following two types of alarms: A "first-stage" alarm that indicates the beginning of nest-building behaviour, and a "second-stage" alarm that indicates the ending of the nest-building behaviour. In total, 53 sows were included in the experiment.