Reminiscing back to my familys 50-head pure-line sow herd in the 1980s, I recall we on occasion had a sow that barely fit into the farrowing Pig Crate. I can remember a particularly large Landrace sow, as wide and as long as the crate, that appeared quite uncomfortable. She ended up laying on multiple piglets.

I'm sure some of you may share a similar story. Now fast forward to 2020. One would think we would have the optimal farrowing crate size figured out. Yet I am not sure we do. There are around one million farrowing crates in the United States, and Tube Farrowing Crates are a sizable capital expense. Yet studying differences between farrowing crates can be challenging.

When evaluating different farrowing crates, generally each design