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

June/July 2025

Better Farming Magazine

Farms.com Breaking News

Calf Auction Raises Funds for Youth

Monday, June 30, 2025

Wyatt Westman-Frijters from Milverton won a heifer calf named Ingrid through a World Milk Day promotion by Maplevue Farms and a local Perth, Ontario radio station. Instead of keeping the calf, 22-year-old Westman-Frijters chose to give back to the community. The calf was sent to the... Read this article online

Cattle Stress Tool May Boost Fertility

Friday, June 27, 2025

Kansas State University researchers have developed a cool tool that may help reduce cattle stress and improve artificial insemination (AI) results. The idea came from animal science experts Nicholas Wege Dias and Sandy Johnson, who observed that cattle accustomed to their environment... Read this article online

Ontario pasture lands get $5M boost

Friday, June 27, 2025

The governments of Canada and Ontario are investing up to $5 million to strengthen shared community grazing pastures. This funding supports the province’s plan to protect Ontario’s agriculture sector and help cattle farmers improve pasture quality, ensuring long-term sustainability and... Read this article online

Health Canada sets rules for drone spraying

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Health Canada has approved the use of drones, also called Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), for pesticide application under the Pest Control Products Act (PCPA). Drones are considered aircraft by Transport Canada, but Health Canada treats them differently due to their unique... 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