Better Pork - October 2000

Why we need building legislation
Opponents of farm construction can block or delay bona fide projects with a variety of "what if" scenarios. Some tips to improve communications with your neighbours
by SAM BRADSHAW
In April 1999, the Township of Perth South issued building permits to Coldsprings Farm Limited to construct two hog barns after reviews and approvals from the Ontario agriculture and environment ministries, the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Federal Fisheries and Oceans, and the Federal Ministry of the Environment.
A neighbour started legal action to have the permits denied. In the original motion, heard in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in May 1999, the farmer was allowed to continue to build the proposed buildings but not to spread manure from them on the site pending further direction from the Court.
In October of 2000, the farmer brought a motion before anoter Superior Court Justice to have him declare that section 14 of the Environmental Protection Act was not applicable law within section 8 of the Building Code Act. In April 2001, Judge Killeen ruled in the farmer's favour, and on May 16 the farmer received approval to spread manure.
So, after two years of legal proceedings, this operation could get back to raising hogs.
But, in the eyes of the farmer, it was "an expensive, hollow victory in defending an environmentally responsible project that was designed and built to conform to all the latest standards and requirements."
The Coldsprings case and other pending cases underscore the fact that even though a producer follows all of the rules, any project can be appealed and held up for an indefinite length of time, frustrating the farmer, the building contractor and many suppliers.
It seems that we are becoming a more and more litigious society. Many people are aware of their rights, but along with rights come responsibilities. Local activists certainly have a right to express concerns about developments that will affect their community, but in some cases they seek injunctions based on very thin or non-existent evidence weighted heavily with "what if" scenarios.
What if, after construction, the farmer doesn't follow his or her nutrient management plan? In some people's minds this is a concern, but one that can be dealt with in a straightforward manner, using existing legislation coupled with new legislation. Existing legislation will address manure spills. New legislation should include ideas such as locally based Community Environment Response Teams, and perhaps a random auditing process to handle nutrient management concerns.
What if the manure transfer system leaks, or what if the manure storage leaks, contaminating our wells or watercourses? Refuting questions like these is very difficult and time-consuming. Ontario Pork has spent much time and money researching these and other questions. We believe that with proper design and supervision, our manure storages and transfer systems will not leak. Proving it, has been, and continues to be an important part of our research priorities.
Every farmer needs to be very diligent during every construction project to be certain that what is being built meets or exceeds standards. Here are some ideas that can help expedite your building project.

* Communicate with your neighbours on an on-going basis, making them familiar with your operations and goals. When you have a building proposal in mind, inform your immediate neighbours about your operation and building plans well ahead of construction.
* Contact and plan with knowledgeable resource people in your community to address probable concerns that may arise regarding your project.
* Prepare a plan that will address as many concerns as possible.
* Be open and available for informal meetings with neighbours.
* Meet or exceed all municipal and provincial regulations.
* Make sure your nutrient management plan is up to date and that you meet minimum distance requirements and manure storage guidelines.

For a larger project you may consider hiring a part time planner, who will:

* Prepare and distribute a publication describing your existing operation, your proposed operation and your future goals, including the use of local businesses involved in your building project.
* Organize an open house and information meetings.
* Plan a municipal outreach program to meet with local municipalities to develop plans or programs where you can work together.
* Work with the media.

Following some or all of the above will help to advance your project with minimal conflict. But, as evidenced in the Coldsprings case, it takes only one person to seek an injunction to stop or delay your project even after you have met or exceeded all requirements.
There is an increasing need for uniform provincial legislation setting out regulations that, if followed, will allow our industry to grow in an environmentally sound manner with minimal disruptions. BP
Sam Bradshaw is an environmental specialist with Ontario Pork.

© copyright 2001 AgMedia Co-operative Inc..

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World's first permanent active temperature recording system for pigs
Producers using the system say it can pay for itself with just an extra half piglet per sow each year
by NORMAN DUNN
A pioneer European pig system offering continuous temperature measurement, with results monitored by computer 24 hours a day, is claimed to give new levels of herd health control.
The QSS2000 system centres around a compact pig earmark which includes a transponder for animal identification, a thermometer chip for continuous temperature measurement and a transmitter for beaming data to a receiver at the farm computer.
As vets never tire of pointing out, a single temperature reading is generally not much help with pigs, although they usually admit that one or two rectal readings is all the normal pig farmer has time for. Even then, the action is usually taken after clinical signs of trouble are plain to see -- in other words, too late for ideal disease control.
What is needed for early warning of infections before clinical signs or for correct identification of breeding cycles is a continuous series of readings giving individual temperature curves for each pig. The QSS2000 system supplies these and goes a step further with software incorporating the usual breeding sow planner with capacity for storing and comparing individual pig temperature curves. The program also incorporates a diagnosis help linked to the temperature recording, and a selection of on-screen warnings that use colour codes to draw attention to variations in temperature, either with single sows, gilts or boars, or per compartment with feeding pigs.
Tests have been successfully run on two farms with a total of 400 sows over the past two years. The exchangeable thermo-earmarks each cost the equivalent of $38 Cdn and include a built-in long-life battery with a guarantee life of five years. The thermometer chip is programmed to take a temperature reading every three minutes. Every 15 minutes, the readings are then averaged-out and beamed back to the farm computer for analysis and recording.
"What we have here is the world's first permanent active temperature recording system for pigs," explains Wolfgang Scheffelke, manager with Diatech, producers of the QSS2000. He adds that continuous readings mean, for example, that problems with a nursing sow can be identified well before the animal goes off her feed and milk production drops off.
Colour code warning systems in the software can take the form of actual sow shapes with actual identification numbers. Such a shape, coloured green, indicates temperature within the healthy physiological limits. A blue sow shape means heightened temperature but still below the tolerance limits -- time for a second look at this animal.
The QSS code uses the yellow sow on the computer screen to indicate that the temperature progression is right for a particular job to be carried out, such as serving, farrowing or weaning. A green piglet form superimposed on the yellow sow means time for a pregnancy check. Red points in a yellow sow on-screen mean either that the sow is to be rehoused or, when well-on in gestation, that an inspection must be carried out because a significant deviation in the temperature curve has been noted by the system. A sow all in red indicates a significant rise in temperature at any time in the cycle -- time to call-in the vet.
Also produced by the software are temperature-linked graphics with further colour code warnings when the graph lines move into significant areas. Alongside the graphs are details of time, date, seven-day averages and tolerance thresholds, including a lower tolerance which can warn of strongly falling temperature -- a sign of kidney problems, for instance.
Commercial farmers who have started using the system say that, even at almost $40 an earmark, it can pay for itself with just an extra half piglet per sow each year. "Continuous temperature recording is a tool that can tighten-up herd management overall and certainly offers a return on this kind of investment," reckons Wolfgang Scheffelke.
A QSS2000 application planned for feeding hogs features just 10 to 20 per cent of the animals in each compartment/house being fitted with the thermo-earmark. This lower investment approach for the feeding hogs, says the manufacturer, gives a good indication of the herd temperature curves and also a permanent early warning system for respiratory infections.

Danish multi-site systems indicate 10-15 per cent cost savings
The Danish swine industry is adopting the North American multi-site system to increase production efficiency under difficult environment-protection restrictions. Danske Slagterier (DS), the Danish umbrella organisation for pork production, has helped adapt the multi-site concept so that it fits with recently introduced hog number limits on individual farms.
The first multi-site complexes now in production have a maximum of 1100 sows in the breeding unit, 30,000 piglet rearing sites and a maximum of 7,500 feeding places per unit for slaughter hogs. By the end of 2001, the Danes expect that 10 per cent of slaughter hog output will have come from multi-sites. Within 10 years, DS expects 80 per cent of all hogs in Denmark to be produced in multi-site systems.
Staffing levels at the moment comprise five to six work places in the 1,100 sow-rearing unit, two responsible for piglet rearing and one full-time person per feeding unit.
The steady development expected for the multi-site systems is partly due to the traditional family farm becoming unable to cope with restrictive environmental protection laws. These include ploughing or harrowing of field surfaces within six hours of manure being applied. Traditional spreading methods are now also taboo. Liquid manure may only be injected directly into the soil or deposited onto the ground via trailing hoses.
First financial results from Danish multi-site units indicate 10-15 per cent cost savings compared with the conventional farrow-to-finish family units. Denmark expects to produce 23.3 million hogs this year, with 90 per cent of the resulting meat being exported. Out of 70,000 hog farms in 1980, there remain only around 15,000 with an estimated 20 per cent of breeding farms running herds of over 500 sows.
The new multi-sites are owned, and mostly worked, by the farmers in each neighbourhood. Each farmer-member is responsible for a certain aspect of the production. Market prices are paid as usual under formal three-month contracts between the breeding, rearing and feeding units. For instance, weaners are transferred to rearing units and the sow unit receives the going price, plus bonuses, for delivering large shipments at a time. The same arrangement applies to the rearing unit deliveries onto the feeding houses.

German farmers must keep vet medical records for three years
Much stricter control of veterinary medicine on hog farms will be introduced in Germany later this year, according to new a new law in preparation. This demands a "treatment book" be kept, either electronically or in conventional form, with details of every treatment carried out on the farm. The main aim is complete traceability of treatment undergone by any animal and the substances used. Main data include the diagnosis made by the vet, details of the hog, type of medicine, exact dosage and the period of treatment.
The new record must also be kept up to date and local authorities or government veterinary officials are entitled to access at any time.
The extent to which the German government is now determined to follow any possible misuse of veterinary medicines can be seen in the alteration of the time during which all records have to be retained for official inspection. This used to be three years. Now, farmers are warned that they must store all such records in the book for at least five years. BP

© copyright 2001 AgMedia Co-operative Inc..

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The biggest barrier to improvement may be the mental one
Are we setting targets for ourselves that are merely convenient or ones that achievable? Step out of the box and find out
by RICHARD SMELSKI
It was once believed that running the mile in less than four minutes was impossible. Medical doctors claimed it was physiologically impossible. Financial incentives did not help and negative (or else options) also produced futile results. also proved futile. Not until Roger Bannister broke the barrier in 1954 was it believed to be humanly possible.
Then, lo and behold, the same feat was achieved four times in a year and is commonplace today, demonstrating that the biggest barrier to success was the mental barrier. Are we having trouble breaking similar mental barriers in the pig business?
One can focus on any part of the operation and improve it. For example, can we achieve preweaning mortality under four percent or do we have a four-minute barrier? Do we set targets for ourselves that are only convenient -- or ones that are achievable? For example, do we surround ourselves with farrowing crates that are convenient for us and not necessarily appropriate for lowering preweaning mortality?
As operations get bigger, operators are even more reluctant to step out of the box to look at completely different designs. They want to purchase inputs economically, reduce labour and be consistent, even though the target may not be optimal. It takes a small group of entrepreneurs to rethink the focus and develop a new approach. That is the purpose of having targets -- to make you step out of the box and retool.
Again, using preweaning mortality as an example, what else can be done to achieve this target?

* Use a team approach. Share your problem with others and you will be surprised at how many real life examples there are to assist you. Innovators have no problem using the phone, e-mail or visits to accomplish their tasks. A team approach is the cheapest and most effective tool you have.
* Avoid saying there is "no time." There is no such thing as "no time" -- only priorities of time. When someone says there is "no time," that is another person's opportunity.
* Be creative. Will preweaning deaths be reduced with crates or do we need nests, drop buckets, privacy areas, computerized sound systems, floor designs or things that are team-created? Have we become used to an archaic system?
* Take a systems approach. What is the cost-benefit of the effort? Does weaning age have to be changed? A German system involved moving sows into specialized farrowing farms. Do we need to go one step further in our loop systems?
* Simple measurements move targets more than any other effort. Measuring the 4 minutes while running the mile created the speed of Rodger Bannister, otherwise, there was no target. More in depth records can help analyze the opportunity in greater detail so as to focus all efforts including the team efforts.
* Measure your progress towards the target. Measurements move targets more than any other effort. Good records of preweaning mortality can help you analyze the opportunities for improvement in greater detail so as to maximize results.
* Yes, be realistic. However, being realistic should not mean to accepting the norm. Realistic means a time commitment and a belief.. The biggest barrier to achieving the target is going to be the desire to do so. BP

Richard Smelski is technical services manager for Agribrands Purina and a former Ontario government swine specialist.

© copyright 2001 AgMedia Co-operative Inc..

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