Search
Better Farming OntarioBetter PorkBetter Farming Prairies

Better Farming Ontario Featured Articles

Better Farming Ontario magazine is published 11 times per year. After each edition is published, we share featured articles online.


Chicken Farmers of Ontario adjusts on-farm audit cycle

Friday, February 8, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Chicken Farmers of Ontario has changed the cycle for its package of audits made up of on-farm food safety, animal care and biosecurity to three years from seven.

The change was effective January 1 and means farmers undergo a full on-farm audit every three years instead of every seven years previously.

In its winter 2012 newsletter posted on its website, Chicken Farmers says the change was made as part of its regulation review and renewal project. The board approved changing the auditing process to a simplified three-year cycle.

“As a result of this change, the partial on-farm audit has been removed from the sequence,” the newsletter says.

Carl Stevenson, Chicken Farmers manager of field services, says the new, three-year cycle is an on-farm audit in the first year followed by a records assessment by trained Chicken Farmers field services representatives in the second year and then a self-declaration in the third year.

Previously the audit cycle, that’s part of Chicken Farmers of Canada’s on-farm food safety program, Safe, Safer, Safest, was a seven-year cycle. That program is shifting to a six-year cycle.

The former on-farm audit occurred in each of the first two years and involved a field services representative from Chicken Farmers touring the growing facilities, reviewing the farmer’s documented standard operating procedures and all the flock records and interviewing the farmer, Stevenson says.

Records assessment was done in the third year of the cycle. In the fourth year, farmers completed another questionnaire. That was followed, in the fifth year, with another on-farm audit, a records assessment in the sixth year and a self-declaration in the seventh year.

Dr. Gwen Zellen, vice president of food quality, operations and risk management, says the new on-farm food safety audit also includes ones for biosecurity and animal care. “The audit cycle is really to conduct those three key components.”

She says the national biosecurity standard was incorporated into the food safety program in 2011.

Farmers could also face additional on-farm audits because at least 10 per cent undergoing paper-based audits in any year will be selected for a random on-farm audit. In its newsletter, Chicken Farmers says those audits are being assigned based on risk and are targeted to farms having a high number of corrective action requests.

Chicken Farmers will also do additional on-farm audits on farms that don’t comply with its policies or regulations. A farm’s failure to comply with regulations could be flagged through inspections, observations, data reviews or complaints.

Stevenson says sometimes they’ll hear concerns from industry stakeholders, such as processors, catchers, hatchery or feed representatives. BF 

Current Issue

September 2025

Better Farming Magazine

Farms.com Breaking News

Festival of Guest Nations returns to Leamington

Thursday, September 18, 2025

On Sunday, September 14, 2025, Seacliff Park in Leamington, Ontario, will come alive with music, food, and celebration as the Festival of Guest Nations returns to honour the migrant worker communities who play a vital role in Essex County’s agricultural economy. With more than 20 years... Read this article online

Augusta Van Muyen selected as the 67th Grape King

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Grape Growers of Ontario and Farm Credit Canada have announced that Lincoln vineyard manager Augusta Van Muyen has been chosen by her peers as the . Currently, the vineyard manager at Tawse Winery, Van Muyen, followed a path to success that took her across Ontario and the world.... Read this article online

Strategies to Optimize Market Returns in Ontario

Monday, September 15, 2025

Berkley Fedorchuk, grain marketing specialist with Hensall Co-op in Southwestern Ontario, recently shared insights into the current corn market and strategies for forward marketing during his presentation at the . With a focus on the Ontario and Eastern Canadian grain sectors,... Read this article online

BF logo

It's farming. And it's better.

 

a Farms.com Company

Subscriptions

Subscriber inquiries, change of address, or USA and international orders, please email: subscriptions@betterfarming.com or call 888-248-4893 x 281.


Article Ideas & Media Releases

Have a story idea or media release? If you want coverage of an ag issue, trend, or company news, please email us.

Follow us on Social Media

 

Sign up to a Farms.com Newsletter

 

DisclaimerPrivacy Policy2025 ©AgMedia Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Back To Top