Farmscape for February 6, 2002 (Episode 883)

An internationally renowned expert on animal behavior is calling for 'on farm auditing' to track and measure the manner in which livestock is handled.
Colorado State University Assistant Animal Science Professor Dr. Temple Grandin estimates effective stockmanship accounts for at least a third of the production equation.
She says livestock producers are accustomed to monitoring such factors as pigs born per litter, weaning rates and days to market and it makes sense to also track stockmanship.

Clip-Dr. Temple Grandin-Colorado State University
In the United States in 1999 McDonald's started auditing slaughter plants for stunning and handling using an auditing system where you measure some very specific things like the number of animals hit with an electric prod.
'Was the pig hit with an electric prod, yes or no?
Did the pig fall down, yes or no?'
No wishy washy standard like 'do it properly' or ' do it adequately,' because the problem with that kind of standard is one person's adequate is another person's bad.
We need to have something you can measure.
Some of the real simple things that you can count when you're loading pigs out or moving pigs is simply the number of pigs that fall down.
It's very specific a pig either falls down where the body touches the ground or the pig doesn't fall down.
The number of pigs you used an electric prod on, so two simple things you can measure.
That's what the slaughter plants are doing in the United States now.
They're measuring with internal audits and then the McDonald's auditor or the Burger King auditor or the Wendy's auditor will just walk in unannounced and they measure it.
I've seen more improvement in 1999 than I've seen in my entire career.
The thing that's really good is, now that this audit system is fully in place, they've been able to maintain the good handling.

Dr. Grandin says, since McDonald's introduction of slaughter plant auditing using specific standards, people have become interested in animal handling and behavior because they're measuring it.
She stresses, without that measuring, handling can deteriorate and people won't even realize it.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

**Dr. Grandin was one of the speakers at the 2002 Manitoba Swine Seminar in Winnipeg

*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council