#19 - Chloe Hagen: Stocking density - what we can do to offset the reduced performance?

Past studies have shown that increasing stocking density will decrease the performance of the pigs. However, when commercial systems are backed-up due to logistic issues or disruptions in the supply chain, barns may be stocked at a lower floor space allowance to avoid bottlenecks. In this episode, Chloe Hagen returns to talk with me about her study where she increased stocking density while also increasing energy level to see if it can help mitigate the reduction in performance historically seen with overcrowding.

Meet the guest: We’re back with a second episode with Chloe Hagen! Chloe is a Ph.D. student at Iowa State University. She received her both B.S. and M.S. from ISU in 2020 and 2022 respectively. She was also a nutrition intern for Christensen Farms back in 2019 and is currently doing an internship as a swine nutrition intern for Cargill. Her M.S. thesis focused on the effects of floor space and lysine restricted diets on the growth rate of finishing pigs and compensatory gain analysis.