Cargill, one of the largest pork producers in the U.S., is continuing its commitment of moving to group housing for its sows that produce hogs for pork. Company owned facilities will be 100 percent group housing by the end of calendar 2015. Contract hog farms that contain Cargill-owned sows will transition to 100 percent group housing by the end of calendar 2017. The hogs produced by Cargill-owned sows represent approximately 30 percent of the total hogs harvested annually at the company’s two pork processing facilities in Illinois and Iowa.
Cargill’s U.S. pork operation has maintained 50 percent group housing for company owned sows over the past several years. The company’s 2011 acquisition of an idled hog farm complex in the Texas Panhandle is allowing Cargill to achieve 100 percent group housing for its gestating sows. Over the past three years, Cargill has invested more than $60 million in the purchase and improvement of the 22,000-acre property near Dalhart, Texas, including the construction of sow barns containing group housing and conversion of existing sow housing from the type known as stalls/crates. Cargill’s Dalhart facility employs more than 300 people, including a team trained to care for the animals at the site.