By LUTHER TWEETEN (Editor’s note: The following is reprinted from the June 2009 issue of the Ohio Ag Manager newsletter published by Ohio State University Extension.) The Humane Society of the United States seeks to phase out battery cages for Ohio’s laying hens, gestation crates for its pregnant pigs and crates for veal calves in favor of group housing. Major stake As the nation’s second largest producer of eggs (27 million laying hens) and a major producer of swine and dairy c