Beef code sets new standards for cattle care and implementation deadlines

Thursday, September 12, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

The recently released Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Beef Cattle has set 2016 as the deadline for Canada’s beef farmers to use pain control when castrating bulls.

The National Farm Animal Care Council and Canadian Cattlemen’s Association released the updated, finalized code Friday. It replaces the previous code, released in 1991.

When castrating bulls older than nine months of age, farmers will be required to use pain control. That change comes into effect on Jan. 1 2016, while as of Jan. 1, 2018, farmers will need to use pain control when castrating bulls older than six months of age. There are also requirements for farmers to give pain control to animals for dehorning procedures or removing the horn bud before it attaches to the calf’s skull.

Jackie Wepruk, general manager and project coordinator for the National Farm Animal Care Council, says the finalized beef code will be used by farmers. Other groups, such as enforcement agencies, will use it as a reference document. It will also be used for educational purposes. “This is about making sure we have a common understanding around what’s expected and what’s recommended.”

The council received 482 submissions from beef farmers, beef industry groups and others in response to the draft beef code. That’s about 10 times less than the number of submissions to the draft Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs, which closed for public comments Aug. 3. The 4,700 submissions received for the draft pig code marked the highest number of submissions for a draft code going through a public comment period ever.

Wepruk calls the response an anomaly and says it was created by certain practices in pig welfare, such as gestation stalls for sow housing, becoming “a huge lightning rod issue in the media.”

But Wepruk says, “I don’t think that should be used as a measure against the beef code.” The council is very satisfied with the number of comments to the beef code, she says.

The committee developing the pig code is now reviewing the submissions and will be releasing a final code by the end of this year. BF