Manitoba’s hog industry is the first in Canada to call for a de facto end to pregnant sow stalls.
However, Canadian Pork Council executive director Martin Rice thinks it embraces a trend already followed across the country.
“This is an innovation, but we don’t view it at all as going off on a different tangent to the rest of the industry,” said Rice.
“This is a more explicit positioning for a province.”
In a report released March 16 called Embracing a Sustainable Future, the Manitoba Pork Council laid out a wide-ranging set of 82 recommendations to improve environmental impacts, food safety and animal care.
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“Manitoba Pork commits to encouraging producers to phase out by 2025 the style of dry sow stalls currently used,” the report said.
“New forms of housing must be practical and provide protection to animals and humans alike.”
The report does not explicitly say pregnant sow stalls should be eliminated or that new stall systems couldn’t be developed, but council directors made it clear during the report’s release that the intent of the recommendation is to direct farmers away from building new stall barn systems.
Hog barns are designed with at least a 25 year lifespan, which means a 2025 phase-out deadline effectively calls for a moratorium on new stall-barn construction.
Council chair Karl Kynoch said the council’s cautious words in committing to group housing is based on its concern that new systems have not yet been fully researched and need to be rigorously assessed first.
“These are commitments that we are heading down that road,” he said.
“We’ve got to make sure that we stay competitive. We compete on a world market. And some of these things, in here, that the consumers are demanding, we have to find ways that we can meet these and still stay competitive in the world.”
The council is committed to funding research into open housing, manure management and nutrient flow.
For example, the University of Manitoba’s National Centre for Livestock and the Environment is researching group housing systems for pregnant sows.
Processors such as Smithfield Foods and Maple Leaf Foods have said they want to buy hogs from open housing systems.
Most of the European hog industry has already converted to open housing due to European Union regulations.
U of M agriculture department associate dean Karin Wittenberg praised the pork industry’s willingness to support research and develop new production methods, and said she understood its anxiety about embracing new systems while research is still underway.
Consumers, processors and animal rights activists have pressured hog farmers to adopt group housing, but Wittenberg said it isn’t easy to do it in a way that improves animal welfare, maintains food safety and can be done profitably.
“Issues are often presented in very simplistic terms, but the solution isn’t simple.”
WORLD PORK FACTS
•China produces and consumes more than 45 percent of the world’s pork.
•The top seven pork producing nations are responsible for 90 percent of world pork production and exports and 77 percent of pork imports.
CANADIAN PORK FACTS
•Canada produced two percent of the world’s pork in 2007, but Canadian pork accounted for 20 percent of world exports at 1.03 million tonnes.
•Canada is the second-largest pork exporter after the United States, shipping pork worth $2.4 billion to 96 countries in 2007.
•Canada is the world’s largest pig exporter with sales of $700 million to the United States in 2007.
MANITOBA PORK FACTS
•Pigs were the most valuable agricultural commodity in Manitoba from 1999 -2007, followed by canola, wheat and beef cattle. However, record high crop prices for both canola and wheat pushed them above pigs in 2008.
•The pork industry is said to inject more than $1 billion into the Manitoba economy annually, providing more than 13,000 direct and indirect jobs.
•The pork industry also provides a market for Manitoba-grown barley, feed wheat and corn, canola and soy meal.
•Manitoba is the largest pig-producing and exporting province, followed by Quebec and Ontario. Pig production is valued at more than $730 million.
Source: Manitoba Pork
