The experiment was carried out on 80 reproduction sows within a production cycle. Sow lots were constituted 15 days after artificial insemination. Sows were accommodated in boxes of 10 sows each, which means 2.5 m 2 per sow and a foraging front of 40 cm. Between day 15 and day 107 of gestation, sows were weighed weekly to calculate monthly weight gain. Two sow boxes were monitored weekly for 12 hours, in a diurnal regime by video camera recording. We measured and added the times allotted by the sows for resting, moving, feeding, and aggressiveness, and we turned them into recording time shares. Results were correlated with the monthly weight gain in sows and processed to correct technological growth parameters. We could notice that from the first gestation month to the third gestation month resting time increased from 39.82±4.90% to 71.22±3.81% and kept constant until the end of the gestation period. The increase in resting time was compensated by the proportional diminution of the moving time. Sow restricted feeding (2.5 kg mixed feed per day in 2 ratios) resulted in a quasi-constant feeding time during the gestation period. Aggressiveness time diminished from 0.38±0.02% during the first gestation month to 0.06±0.04% in the third gestation month and kept constant until the end of the gestation period. Large individual variations of the time allotted to moving and resting are due to the large differences in weight and age of the sows in the gestation lots. Keeping sows in individual boxes with rigorous control of the amount of feed would allow increased performance of the sows upon farrowing and weaning.

sows; behaviour; gestation

Presentation: oral