Sows are often housed in barren stalls during breeding/gestation. Providing enrichments for which sows are highly motivated should improve welfare. The aim of this study was to compare the motivation of Yorkshire x Landrace gestating sows (32, n=8/reward) housed in standard stalls for access to 1 of 4 rewards. Environmental enrichments: spent mushroom compost (C, 2.27 kg) or straw (S, 0.45 kg). Food (F, 0.91 kg) and an empty trough (T) acted as positive and negative controls, respectively. We predicted enrichments for which sows were highly motivated would resemble F and/or be significantly different from T, while low motivation enrichments would resemble T. While in visual and olfactory contact with rewards, sows were trained to press an operant panel on an increasing schedule. The highest schedule pressed indicated motivational strength. Sows were given 1 h to press the panel and 23 h to interact with the reward. Data were analyzed using GLM and post-hoc Tukey tests. The C sows showed higher motivation (number of presses) for the reward (196.88 +/- 46.38, LS means +/- S.E.) than T (55.85 +/- 46.75; P=0.017), S and T did not differ (P>0.05). The F sows pressed more than all other treatments (462.87 +/- 46.38; all P<0.01). The C sows pressed the panel sooner (sec; 5.00 +/- 156.40) than S (332.88 +/- 156.40) and T (271.43 +/- 157.70; P=0.069 and P=0.011, respectively), while F pressed sooner (11.25 +/- 156.40) than T (P=0.046); all other latencies did not differ (P>0.05). Gestating sows housed in stalls were highly motivated for C and F, but showed low motivation for S and T. The C and F sows pressed the panel sooner, which may indicate increased motivation. The provision of compost is important to sows housed in barren stalls and should be considered as a method to improve welfare.