LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – Alberta pork will soon carry a written guarantee of quality.
The Alberta Quality Pork Program will start as a six-month pilot project within two weeks. It involves about 50 producer volunteers, Fletcher’s Fine Foods, Gainers Inc., Alberta Agriculture and the province’s single-desk hog marketing agency the Pork Producers Development Corporation.
The first of its kind in Canada, all health information on individual hogs will be stored at packing houses and available to interested pork buyers.
The packing plants will also give farmers detailed feedback on post-mortem examinations of each hog’s general health, liver condition, leg abnormalities, scar tissue or skin ailments. Animals can be traced to their origins because each hog is tattooed.
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Participating farmers attended a series of meetings where they learned how to record all activities dealing with hogs on their farms. These include full descriptions of feed formulations, medicines and illnesses.
Feed mills and producers will also be asked to certify that all feeds used are free from chemical and other harmful residues.
Reduce contamination
Ed Schultz, general manager of the corporation, said such a closely monitored program should reduce carcass contamination and enhance food safety.
“Consumers down the road can say we buy from farmers who practise this kind of program,” said Schultz.
Provincial veterinarian Matt Schoonderwoerd has been working closely with the group.
He hopes such a program will show producers where they can improve management and produce a better, more profitable product when they know the extent of lung inflammations, liver conditions, presence of parasites and whether adhesions were present around lungs and hearts.
“Those are conditions that affect days to market and production efficiency,” said Schoonderwoerd. A similar program of animal health feedback is used in Holland.
“Most producers don’t know how widespread their problem is.”
Producers already receive grades, yields and reports on bruising from the pork board.
To give the information more impact, the hog board is asked to plot all results on charts so producers can see if they are making progress.
