An animal care specialist with Manitoba Pork Council reports a new series of “Smart Pig Handling” videos is attracting considerable interest and positive reviews among pork producers.
In October, Manitoba Pork Council released a new series of six “Smart Pig Handling” videos.
The videos were developed by a working group which included representation from Maple Leaf Foods, Hylife Limited, Elanco Animal Health and the University of Manitoba and focus on low stress pig handling techniques.
Mark Fynn, an animal care specialist with Manitoba Pork Council notes the first two are foundation chapters and the remaining four focus on specific farm types.
The videos are specifically developed for pork producers and farm managers to be able to train new employees on to it.
The idea is really to give those watching the videos a firm foundation in the art of animal handling and then go ahead and do hands on training with those concepts in mind and really focusing on that minimal stress aspect.
As far as the content of the videos, a lot of it revolves around low stress animal handling techniques so you look at different ways of handling pigs that is both effective in the handing as in it’s an easy job and easy movement but it also does it in a way that’s very low stress on both the pigs and the handlers and it also focuses fairly heavily on the safety of the workers in the barn as well and, when you keep stress minimal for the pigs, it usually produces a fairly safe work environment as well.
Fynn estimates 200 copies have been handed out within Manitoba, copies have been shipped to the other provincial pork organizations that helped fund the videos and the foundation chapters have also been posted to the Manitoba Pork Council web site and youtube channel and have generated several hundred views.
For more information or to obtain copies visit manitobapork.com.
