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DALHART, Texas – Pork producers across the United States have long kept their sows in small, barred stalls or crates, with so little space they can’t turn around.

The sows here at Cargill’s sprawling hog complex mill about in pens, snorting and jostling. Some just flop on the concrete floor to rest. It’s not Club Pig, but at least the ­animals get some room.

The move to group sow housing by Cargill and other U.S. pork firms reflects an important shift in thinking about animal welfare, from consumers to large food ­corporations. Consumers are increasingly interested in how their food is produced – including how animals are treated – while animal rights groups have ratcheted up pressure on the food industry.

The result: restaurant chains, packaged food makers and supermarkets – all big pork buyers – are increasingly requiring suppliers like Cargill to phase out crates and move to group sow housing. At least 60 major U.S. companies have made public declarations for such a shift, including the Twin Cities’ General Mills, Target and Supervalu.  

“If you want to be a viable supplier, you respond to the signals your customers send,” said Jeff Worstell, vice president of livestock production for Cargill Pork. Minnetonka-based Cargill intends to phase out all individual stalls from its own hog production system by the end of 2017.