Changes proposed to Canada’s Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs in the area of sow housing are raising financial, operational and animal welfare concerns.
On June 1 the National Farm Animal Care Council released a draft updated Pig Code of Practice triggering a 60 day public comment period.
Last week the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board held two producer information sessions on the proposed code.
Producers services Manager Harvey Wagner notes, after adoption, new or renovated sow barns will have to move to group housing and existing sow barns will need to covert by 2024.
Producers find this to be excessive.
The overwhelming sentiment from the meetings was that they really find this to be difficult to adopt in their barns, particularly the renovation part.
The barns were designed for stalls and to tear the stalls out and re-do the barns over the next ten years is going to be a monumental challenge and they don’t know that it would make sense financially for them, operationally and also for the welfare of the animals.
They are concerned that the welfare of the animals would actually be worse in a barn that’s been renovated than it is in a sow stall system.
Most producers who work with the animals feel that the stalls actually don’t provide that bad a level, there are people who think that the sows stalls are challenging for the animals but producers who work with these animals every day for the most part do not feel that that’s the case so they’re not really keen on the renovations.
And, as everyone knows, the industry has had its financial challenges over the last number of years so money to do it is scarce and the operations of it make it complicated and animal welfare issues are large as well.
Wagner encourages producers to visit the National Farm Animal Care Council web site to review the draft code and submit comments.
