When Courtney Archer looks into a commercial swine barn, she doesn’t just see daily chores, tight margins or pigs waiting to be cared for – she sees an intricate behavioral puzzle waiting to be solved.
As an Air Force kid born in Bitburg, Germany, who moved every two years and never laid eyes on a farm animal until college, Archer arrived in animal science without the traditional biases of production agriculture. Today, as an assistant professor and researcher at the University of Illinois, she is flipping the standard livestock welfare paradigm on its head.
Instead of asking what more caretakers must do for pigs, Archer asks what pigs could do for themselves if given the right tools. From self-vaccinating grow-finish pens to diagnosing the subtle pre-outbreak signals of tail biters, she combines an artist’s eye for detail with practical engineering to prove that true animal welfare doesn’t add chores to a producer’s day. Instead, it takes them off the list.
Flexibility as Resiliency
Moving constantly throughout childhood meant entering new schools, making new friends and adapting to uncomfortable environments. Archer carried that experience directly into academia, viewing adaptability not as mere survival, but as the foundation of innovation.
“I had to learn how to be comfortable in new and uncomfortable situations,” Archer says. “I started coining that term, ‘flexibility as resiliency,’ because how I was raised taught me that you can’t just push through change. You need to accept it and embrace it in order to thrive.”
As an undergraduate at Texas A&M University, that mindset guided her into animal behavior. She joined Aggie Guide Dogs and Service Dogs, where she was paired with a quirky, challenge-prone goldendoodle puppy named Buddy Bones. Learning to decipher Buddy’s nonverbal cues sparked a fascination with animal communication that eventually led her to Texas Tech University.
That was where legendary swine behaviorist John McGlone introduced her to a commercial sow. Archer had initially signed up for a research credit hoping for an easy A, but she found a lifelong calling instead.
“I ended up at the New Deal Swine Farm and saw my first sow,” Archer recalls. “I thought that sow was amazing. You could see the curiosity in her eyes. She had such a personality, and I was fascinated by how large she was.”
However, she’s quick to admit it was the people of the swine industry – the pig farmers, the barn staff, the industry leaders – that made her want to stay.
Can Pigs Work for Themselves?
As Archer spent more time in commercial swine barns, she repeatedly noticed two bottlenecks: severe labor shortages and caretakers drowning in daily task lists.
“One advantage of not being raised with livestock and having a strong animal background is that I ask a lot of questions because I’m just trying to familiarize myself and understand how the industry works,” Archer says.
At the same time, her graduate training reinforced a foundational principle of animal welfare: animals thrive when they have choice and agency over their daily activities. That sparked a counter-intuitive question: Why can’t pigs perform their own routine management tasks to relieve the burden on staff?
By leveraging natural biological drives, Archer began designing practical tools that let pigs take charge of their own care.
“During my master’s work at Texas Tech, we focused on a project trying to get grow-finish pigs to self-vaccinate themselves for erysipelas, salmonella and a few other diseases by using natural behaviors,” Archer explains. “We built a device that utilized the natural behavior of rooting. The pig would root the device which would push a lever, and the lever would spray the pig.”
In her current lab at Illinois, she is extending that philosophy to breeding stock, testing ways for sows coming into estrus to self-identify their heat cycle—potentially replacing the labor-intensive chore of having barn staff individually back-pressure test hundreds of females every morning.
Decoding Tail Biters: The Purpose Behind the Behavior
Archer also brings a hidden background in drawing and sculpture into her role. Just as an artist breaks down a still life into individual lines, planes and cast shadows rather than seeing a single object, Archer deconstructs the pen environment.
“When it comes to animals, every behavior has a purpose,” Archer says. “Unlike humans, who might just sit around or go for a walk because we feel like it, animals generally always have a purpose for what they do. A simple observation of one pig walking around while the rest are sitting isn’t random—it’s data.”
That analytical lens drove her doctoral work on tail biting. Rather than focusing on the victim, Archer studied the instigators. Her team discovered distinct patterns: tail biters were consistently lighter, leaner, and exhibited elevated curiosity.
More surprisingly, she identified an unexpected management trigger: tail biting spiked immediately following routine health checks—the exact moment caretakers walked pens and got pigs onto their feet. Furthermore, the behavior clustered disproportionately in the center of the pen.
Armed with that data, Archer was able to implement simple, low-cost solutions: placing enrichment items in the middle of the pen to intercept restless biters before damage occurred. Her lab is now tracking behavioral anomalies three to seven days prior to an outbreak to build early-warning intervention strategies for commercial producers.
Low-Cost Welfare: Not Just Toys
To be adopted in commercial operations, Archer stresses that welfare solutions must be durable, multi-functional and budget-friendly. Crucially, they don’t have to look like conventional toys.
“A lot of people think enrichment has to be a tactile object—a toy that takes up pen space,” Archer explains. “Pigs are olfactory animals. They love to smell. We study chemical communication or adding scents to the barn that stimulate engagement, promote play and encourage positive social interactions without occupying floor space.”
The payoff isn’t just behavioral, she points out. It affects the bottom line. Calmer, engaged pigs handle easier, convert feed better, and yield higher meat quality, putting more money back into producers’ pockets.
The Takeaway for Pork Producers
As Archer trains the next generation of animal scientists—many of whom, like her, step onto a farm for the first time in college—she encourages them to shed picture-book assumptions and look at modern pork production with curiosity.
Her message to veteran producers and caretakers walking the pens every morning is the same: treat the barn walk not as a checklist, but as an ongoing conversation.
“Don’t just observe that pigs are standing or lying down—ask why,” Archer advises. “Why are they in that specific corner? Why are they up at this hour? For decades, our industry has focused on trying to make the pig fit our management systems and barns. If we can start adjusting our management and equipment to fit the natural biology and behavior of the pig, we can make life a whole lot better for the animal—and a whole lot easier for the caretaker.
Want to hear more of Courtney Archer’s story?
Tune in to the latest episode of The PORK Podcast as host Jennifer Shike sits down with Courtney Archer to discuss the story behind the story of how swine behavior and practical engineering can make life easier for both the pig and the person walking the pens.
👉 Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or watch on Farm Journal’s YouTube channel.
