Influence of hands-on experience on pig farmers' attitude towards alternatives for surgical castration of male piglets

• Hands-on experience with alternatives for piglet castration
• Positive experience with raising entire male pigs
• Farmers need advice and information when starting to implement immunocastration.
• Legal requirements or monetary incentives will be needed to stimulate the use of analgesia or anaesthesia during castration.

This study evaluates the influence of practical experience with alternatives for surgical castration (SC) on farmer attitudes. Nineteen farmers in Flanders were surveyed before (ex-ante) and after (ex-post) performing each of five treatments on farm: 1) SC with analgesia (SCAN); 2) SC with CO2 anaesthesia (SCCO2); 3) immunocastration (IM); 4) production of entire males (EM); and 5) SC without pain relief (SCN). For SCCO2 and SCAN, farmers mainly experienced disadvantages in terms of increased labour, costs and complexity. Hands-on experience promoted EM as a valid alternative for SCN due to the actual and perceived improvement in performance and profitability as well as the reduced labour demands. Experience with IM did not fully fulfil the favourable ex-ante expectations resulting in a level of dissatisfaction and a less favourable general attitude ex-post.