Influence of the accessibility of straw in racks on exploratory behaviour in finishing pigs

Exploratory behaviour followed a daily biperiodical pattern with the highest levels recorded 3 h after morning feeding (7:00-10:00 h) and about 2 h before and after feeding in the afternoon (14:30-19:00 h). The proportion of pigs per scan exploring filled racks (p<0.001) as well as exploring straw on the floor (p<0.007) increased monotonically as the number of filled racks increased. The rate of displacements from the rack tended to decrease monotonically with an increasing number of racks (p=0.083). It seems that provision of more enrichment material increasingly stimulates the exploratory behaviour of finishing pigs at least up to 19 cm rack space per pig.