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Pigs sleep and rest a lot. Afterwards and in between, they have distinct, active needs. In normal pig farming systems, they cannot live out these needs, or only to a limited extent – very boring for the pigs, indeed sad.
Especially young pigs, and all fattening pigs are young pigs, are extremely interested in their environment, downright curious and brash. And they like to dig in the ground, they play, move intensively, run for pure joy, wallow.
That is why the Wiesenschwein pig system offers the pigs an extremely varied daily routine, an attractive habitat to live out their needs and species-appropriate feeding. In addition to feeding at the trough, they can also forage for themselves – in the burrowing substrate in the “forest floor” or they simply eat grass in the meadow. Yes, this is variety.

The habitat of the Wiesenschwein pigs is designed in such a way that, in addition to the need to sleep and rest, they can also well satisfy their distinctly active needs: for example rooting, playing, moving and wallowing.

The pigs have enough space to act out their natural behavior, with minimal consumption of the scarce resource “floor”. This is possible thanks to a staggered use of the playground and meadow.

Wiesenschwein pigs have the opportunity to explore a diverse environment and use it regularly. Resource-efficient and space-saving, Wiesenschwein pigs share this environment. This is possible by taking advantage of the pigs’ natural daily rhythm:
Pigs spend a large part of the day sleeping. Or they lie down and rest. They don’t need much space for this. Outside of this phase, they occupy themselves with rooting, they maintain social contacts and take care of their toilet. Wiesenschwein pigs can pursue these needs at any time. On the one hand in the barn, on the other hand on the associated balcony, which is accessible to the pigs at any time.

The pigs are grouped by age. Each group has two large free-range levels at its disposal, time-limited and automatically controlled: a covered all-weather area with an earth-like rooting substrate and a wallow or even swimming wallow (free-run level 1). When the weather is suitable, a second, larger area with a meadow and trees is added (free-run level 2). In these free-run levels they can really let off steam before returning to their barn with balcony to eat and sleep. This is possible thanks to the sophisticated Wiesenschwein automation system, which uses the pigs’ natural daily rhythm and intelligence.

Depending on the number of groups, there are several playgrounds and pastures that are operated in parallel. This guarantees sufficient free-running time even in large farms.

For free running, the gate between the balcony, i.e. the permanent run, and the playground (free running level 1) is automatically opened for a group of pigs. The pigs jump outside and play, rooting and running. When the weather or the humidity of the pasture allows it, the second gate between the playground and the meadow and forest (free run level 2) opens. The animals now have the entire area at their free disposal.

The scanners at the gates constantly measure which animal is where. As soon as the free run time is over, a certain tone sequence is heard. The group is conditioned to this tone sequence and the Wiesenschwein pigs run back independently. As soon as the control system receives the information that all animals are back in the barn, the gates close automatically. This is possible thanks to image algorithms and scanners