Alternatives to nose-ringing in outdoor sows: the provision of root crops

Sows that received swedes spent significantly less time rooting the paddock (excluding the sacrificial area) when compared to the control sows (A = 8.7%, B = 5.7%, C = 6.6%, D = 4.7%, P < 0.001). The paddock which housed sows receiving the isoenergetic diet (containing swedes) had numerically higher levels of vegetation cover at the end of the 8-week period (55% cover) although this was not significantly different from the other three treatments (A = 31%, B = 38%, C = 30%). Although the provision of swedes reduced paddock rooting behaviour it appears that this is not an exclusive determinant of paddock damage, and therefore, this strategy cannot be recommended as a sole commercial alternative to nose-ringing sows.