Smithfield Moves Ahead, Asks Contracted Farmers to End Use of Gestation Stalls

By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com

Smithfield Foods, Inc., the world’s largest hog producer and pork processer, announced Tuesday that it is asking its pork suppliers to get rid of gestation stalls and convert to group housing for pregnant sows by 2022.

The company says it plans to provide incentives to encourage conversion, noting that contracted farmers who commit to convert to group housing will receive contract extensions after the conversion is completed.

"We recognize that these projects require a significant investment on the part of our growers," said Larry Pope, president and chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods.

It appears that Smithfield is following through on its commitments. In 2007 they began converting to group housing for all its company-owned U.S. farms. The company remains on track to complete its conversion to group housing by 2017.  Smithfield’s operations in Poland and Romania completed its conversions a number of years ago.

In a Jan. 7 press release, Smithfield said that its hog production subsidiary Murphy-Brown had transitioned 54 per cent of pregnant sows on its company-owned farms in the U.S. to group housing systems in 2013.

Last year, Smithfield was bought by China’s Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. The acquisition was the biggest Chinese purchase of a U.S. firm in history.