Farmscape News

Health of Animals Regulations Amendments Expected by Late 2010 or Early 2011

Jeff Clark - Canadian Pork Council — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for September 2, 2010 (Episode 3405)

The Canadian Pork Council expects planned amendments to the federal Health of Animals Regulations to accommodate swine tracebility to become effective by late 2010 or early 2011.

The Canadian Pork Council is coordinating the development of the swine component of a national multi-species livestock tracebility system.

Jeff Clark, the manager of PigTrace Canada an initiative of the Canadian Pork Council, says planned amendments to the federal Health of Animals Regulations will allow swine tracebility including movement reporting and identification to come into full effect.

Clip-Jeff Clark-Canadian Pork Council:
The biggest part of the regulation is the requirement for anyone housing or moving swine to report key movement information within 48 hours of departure or reception of animals, those being the premises ID of the site of departure, the destination, the license plate of the transport, as well as the date and time and the quantity of animal on the load and if there's any identifiers on the animals such as a shoulder slap tattoo for animals going to slaughter or a PigTrace swine ID tag those also need to be reported.

My understanding is CFIA has draft regulations before Justice Canada right now for legal opinion and comment and review.

They'll be published in Canada Gazzette-1 sometime this fall for a 30 day public comment period and based on the comments received there'll be changes made if need be.

Then it'll be published in Canada Gazzette-2 where it'll become Canadian law.

Potentially that could be before the end of 2010.

If not certainly I would think over the winter and early spring of 2011.

Clark says tracebility has been talked about for a long time and, for the most part, stakeholders have been supportive and are ready to go once the new regulations come into effect.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council

Canadian Swine Inventory Stabilizes

Mark Ferguson - Sask Pork — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for September 1, 2010 (Episode 3404)

The Saskatchewan Pork Development Board reports, following an across the board decline in hog numbers since this time last year, western Canada's swine population has started to stabilize.

The latest figures from Statistics Canada show as of July 1st the total Canadian pig inventory fell by 2.3 percent while the breeding stock inventory fell by 4.8 percent since this time last year but since April 1st the breeding herd has increased slightly.

Saskatchewan Pork Development Board industry and policy analyst Mark Ferguson says while the year over year numbers have declined, things appear to have stabilized since the last quarter.

Clip-Mark Ferguson-Saskatchewan Pork Development Board:
I think what the numbers are showing is that it's clear there's going to be fewer animals available for slaughter.

This is leading to tighter supplies of hogs which in turn leads to tighter supplies of meat and hopefully in the end this is going to translate into higher prices for both meat and hogs and I think it is translating into higher prices for meat and hogs and a situation where both farmers and packers can be profitable.

As of July 30'th the stocks of pork in cold storage are at their lowest level since 2004 and they're down five percent since last month so the amount of pork we have in cold storage continues to come down.

Also the cutout values which attempt to estimate the meat value of the carcass have also hit record highs over the past couple of weeks.

If your convert that to Canadian dollars and kilograms the value of a carcass is well over 200 dollars per 100 kilograms so the shorter supplies of hogs and meat are definitely having an impact on the market and it's translated into good hog pricing.

Ferguson says, with the index 100 hog price running at about 150 dollars per 100 kilograms most producers would be above their cost of production.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

* Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council

PSC Recommends Increased Alley Width in Swine Barns

Dr. Harold Gonyou - Prairie Swine Center — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for August 31, 2010 (Episode 3403)

A researcher with the Prairie Swine Centre is recommending increasing the alley width in modern swine barns to reduce stress and make the loading of near market pigs faster and easier.

The Prairie Swine Centre in Saskatoon has completed a study which examined the impact of various alley widths when moving different sized groups of pigs on stress and on the amount of time required to move the animals.

Dr. Harold Gonyou, a research scientist in animal behavior, says the standard 60 centimetre alley width, the width of two pigs 10 to 15 years ago when producers were marketing slightly smaller pigs, is no longer sufficient.

Clip-Dr. Harold Gonyou-Prairie Swine Centre:
Now 60 centimetres isn't wide enough for two pigs to walk down side by side.

They tend to have difficulty doing that so it becomes difficult to handle them in that narrow of a space so we looked at some wider alleys to see if they would move better.

We found that 90 centimetres was a good alley width.

We also went as high as 2.4 metres which is quite a wide alley but we were also looking at moving groups of up to 20 pigs in a group.

We looked at group size, just four pigs which is the standard recommendation.

It's recommended that, if you're moving pigs to load onto a truck, that you should move them in groups of four to six.

We looked at four, we looked at eight, 12 and 20 and looking at these wider alleys to see if they would still move fairly well in those alleys.

90 centimetres actually worked quite well with all the group sizes that we were working with.

You could move 20 pigs fairly effectively in an alley width of 90 centimetres.

You did have some trouble with blocking etceteras with the larger groups.

If you went to large groups such as 20 pigs moving at once we would probably recommend that you build for 1.2 metres wide in your alleyway so that they would continue to move well.

Dr. Gonyou suggests, to reduce stress and speed up the movement of pigs we have to increase the recommendation from 60 centimetres to 90 centimetres or more.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

* Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council

Manitoba Introduces New Farm Building Code

Jennifer Howard - Manitoba Labour and Immigration Minister — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for August 30, 2010 (Episode 3402)

The introduction of a new Manitoba Farm Building Code us expected to enhance safety on the farm and help reduce losses due to fire.

Last week the Manitoba government announced a new provincial Farm Building Code will take effect November 1'st.

The code will apply to new construction over 600 square metres or to buildings undergoing extensive renovation.

Labour and Immigration Minister Jennifer Howard says under the new code agricultural buildings will be treated like industrial buildings.

Clip-Jennifer Howard-Manitoba Labour and Immigration Minister:
The Farm Building Code mirrors very much what is in place for industrial buildings of that size so we're taking about things like having fire stops in place, having exits in place.

We're also talking about things like having good working fire alarms and having plans for those buildings signed off by structural engineers.

But we're also very aware that farm buildings are unlike other buildings and so we've been working with different producer groups, Keystone Agricultural Producers, the Pork Council about the specific needs of those buildings.

We're going to, as we go forward and we put this code into effect, we're going to be looking for ways to make sure that it makes practical sense on the farm but also protects safety.

One of the things that is in place industrial buildings that we're not going to put in place for farm buildings is sprinkler systems for example.

We heard pretty clearly from producers that a sprinkler system in a place where you might not have a steady water supply or in a place where the sprinklers might be set off accidentally and damage the livestock that they're meant to protect doesn't make a lot of sense.

We've tried to be aware of and sensitive to the fact that there are some unique challenges on the farm to create a safer environment but also that we do need some standards and some codes that haven't been in place before.

Howard notes in the last 10 years there has been almost 100 million dollars in farm losses due to fire.

She says the new code is designed to protect property, livestock, the people who work in those buildings and firefighters who come to put out fires.

For Farmscape.Ca. I'm Bruce Cochrane.

* Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council

Cooperation Among Jurisdictions Needed to Address Lake Winnipeg Water Quality

Cliff Graydon - Manitoba Conservative Party — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for August 27, 2010 (Episode 3401)

The Manitoba Conservative Party is calling on the provincial government to work more closely with other jurisdictions to address water quality problems in Lake Winnipeg.

In November 2006 as part of its effort to reduce nutrient loading into Lake Winnipeg the Manitoba government announced plans to temporarily freeze new hog barn construction in much of the province and, with the September 2007 passage of Bill 17, the ban became permanent.

Conservative agriculture critic Cliff Graydon suggests a more reasonable approach would have been to follow recommendations put forward by the Manitoba Clean Environment Commission.

Clip-Cliff Graydon-Manitoba Conservative Party:
They said there had to be some work done and some monitoring done, that there was no place in southeastern Manitoba that was in jeopardy right now that was critical but it needed to be looked at and find some solutions to this.

So we need to go back to research and development, we need to see how we can limit the amount of phosphorus that would pass through.

We're talking about a very small portion of phosphorus that's going into the lake.

We need to look at a whole bigger picture.

If we're talking about the health of the lake we need to look at the whole water shed and that's both east and west and of course this premier and this government is certainly not working with the western part of the water shed as indicated by their absence from the new west partnerships and they're also not working very we'll with our southern neighbors so this is what we need to do.

If the lake is our big concern and I believe it is, we certainly all want to see the lake to be rejuvenated because it is the 10'th largest lake in the world.

We need to do these but we need to look at the whole picture not just one small segment of it.

Graydon notes the premier continues to refer to the hog industry as one of the major culprits when in fact the research has shown it contributes less than two percent of phosphorus to Lake Winnipeg.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council

Ability to Manage Crop Nutrients Improves Dramatically

Ian Wishart - Keystone Agricultural Producers — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for August 26, 2010 (Episode 3400)

Keystone Agricultural Producers says Manitoba farmers are in a much better position than ever before to manage the use of crop inputs and reduce nutrient loss to the environment.

Manitoba pork producers are drawing attention to the fact that, despite a moratorium on new hog barn construction or expansion in much of the province, water quality in Lake Winnipeg continues to deteriorate.

Keystone Agricultural Producers president Ian Wishart says KAP has opposed the ban from the beginning and instead favors a site specific approach to nutrient management.

Clip-Ian Wishart-Keystone Agricultural Producers:
If a farm operation has either enough acres on its own or enough spread acres to handle the phosphorus and nitrogen requirements on a crop removal basis then we would support that particular farm whether they wish to expand or not.

We think that is a very practical approach.

It's simply a replacement of either purchased nutrients with naturally occurring ones from the livestock industry and we do think that that's the approach that going into the future will be what all livestock industries have to meet.

Certainly that's a change from many years ago when we were working really with a nitrogen balance requirement as what we met.

We've learned over the years that we need to do more than that and we have changed our management in not only the hog sector but all the agricultural sectors with this in mind.

We're in a much better position now to manage nutrients in a much more sustainable way and we are doing that.

In fact I would dare say that between the need to do this for water quality issues and the high price that we paid for some crop nutrients in 2008, I would say awareness and focus on better nutrient management by the farm community is way higher than it ever was before.

Wishart says farmers are applying nutrients in a more strategic way and getting better results while minimizing losses to the environment.

He notes over the last five years North American farmers have grown bigger crops using less nutrients per year.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council

Manitoba Liberals Critical of Approach to Lake Winnipeg Water Quality Issues

Dr. Jon Gerrard - Manitoba Liberal Leader — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for August 25, 2010 (Episode 3399)

The leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party says the province needs to adopt a science based approach to addressing water quality problems in Lake Winnipeg.

Pork producers have drawn attention to the fact that, despite a moratorium on the construction of new or expanded hog barns in much of Manitoba, water quality in Lake Winnipeg continues to decline.

Manitoba Liberal leader Dr. Jon Gerrard says the major problem in Lake Winnipeg is the excessive algal blooms caused by phosphorus.

Clip-Dr. Jon Gerrard-Manitoba Liberal Party:
The hog industry has been said to contribute about one percent of the phosphorus.

People can argue that back and forth, it really depends in part on how well the hog manure is applied.

When it's injected there probably is not very much phosphorus that runs off the land because the phosphorus injected into the land will stay there and be used by crops so it's a matter of agricultural practices.

Certainly the NDP and the premier have used the hog industry as a scapegoat rather than tackling this in a really effective scientific way.

They've been slow on many fronts.

Even though we now have a ban on phosphorus in automatic dishwasher detergents, they were slow to implement that and it's not complete because it doesn't apply to phosphorus in automatic dishwasher detergents in industrial use.

There have been some other modest steps taken but by en large this government has been very slow and it's not been very science based and they've taken an attitude that we can blame it all on the hog industry and we can use them as a scapegoat instead of doing the overall job that needs to be done.

Dr. Gerrard recalls, during the debate, scientists from the University of Manitoba stated clearly a hog moratorium was not the answer and that there are other better scientific approaches and that's what we should be doing,

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council

Manitoba Water Stewardship Reports Progress in Improving Lake Winnipeg Water Quality

Dwight Williamson - Manitoba Water Stewardship — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for August 24, 2010 (Episode 3398)

Manitoba Water Stewardship says, despite continuing deterioration of water quality in Lake Winnipeg, government efforts to reduce nutrient loading are beginning to have an effect.

Manitoba pork producers have raised concern that, despite a ban on new hog barn construction or expansion in much of the province, Lake Winnipeg water quality continues to decline.

Manitoba Water Stewardship assistant deputy minister Dwight Williamson says wile water quality in the lake remains a concern we are moving in the right direction.

Clip-Dwight Williamson-Manitoba Water Stewardship:
It is my view that water quality in Lake Winnipeg would be far worse than it is now if these measures were not in place.

Things like the hog moratorium not affecting existing operations but certainly not allowing additional nutrients to come from future expansion or expansion of that sector in those three areas.

Other measures that have just started to take effect include new regulations on septic fields, those affecting many homes within the Manitoba region, buffer zones on the application of fertilizers to areas adjacent to streams, rivers and lakes, the previsions that we've put in place to prevent the application of phosphorus in fertilizers within urban and rural residential areas and another measure that just came in on July 1st of this year is the prohibition on phosphorus over a very small percentage in the detergents that we use in all of our households.

Williamson says the issues on Lake Winnipeg and elsewhere are still significant but they would have been much worse without these measures.

He says as these measure come into full effect we expect grater improvement.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council

Public Urged to Participate in Efforts to Improve Lake Winnipeg Water Quality

Dr. Al Kristofferson - Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for August 23, 2010 (Episode 3397)

The Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium says each of the 6.6 million inhabitants of the lake Winnipeg water shed have a role to play in improving water quality in the lake.

Pork producers have drawn attention to the fact that, despite a moratorium on the construction of new or expanded hog barns in much of Manitoba, water quality in Lake Winnipeg continues to decline.

Water quality monitoring has shown there is a lot of natural annual variation depending on weather but the concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus have increased over the past eight years.

Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium managing director Dr. Al Kristofferson suggests the solution lies in the hands of the 6.6 million people that live in the Lake Winnipeg water shed.

Clip-Dr. Al Kristofferson-Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium:
Number one, certainly the majority of people in the watershed have to know there's a problem, in the first place and secondly they have to understand the nature of the problem and then they have to look at themselves and say I'm doing something that's contributing to this nutrient input, I'm going to have to do something differently.

On the various web sites of the Lake Winnipeg Stewardship Board, our web site, the Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium web site are a list of things that people can do to help turn the situation around.

There's hope.

We know that this is a reversible issue.

It's a global issue, it's not just here in Lake Winnipeg, it's all around the world as a matter of fact and if we're willing to change our lifestyle to the extent that we need to and work as a groups we can turn this around and we have to.

There's just to much at stake for everybody.

The other thing too is that people living in the water shed some distance from Lake Winnipeg, there's an immediate benefit to them as well because if they start improving the way they're doing business they're going to improve the water quality in their backyard as well.

Dr. Kristofferson acknowledges we haven't started to slow the speeding train yet and that's what we have to work on.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council

Sound Nutrient Management Principles Recommended for Improving Lake Winnipeg Water Quality

Dr. Don Flaten - University of Manitoba — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for August 20, 2010 (Episode 3396)

A University of Manitoba soil scientist suggests adopting sound nutrient management principles would be more effective than the province's moratorium on hog industry expansion for addressing water quality concerns in Lake Winnipeg.

In 2006 the Manitoba government banned the construction of new hog barns in much of the province to reduce the level of phosphorus ending up in lake Winnipeg.

Manitoba Pork Council is expressing concern that, while hog producers have endured the economic impact of the moratorium, water quality in Lake Winnipeg continues to deteriorate.

Dr. Don Flaten, a soil scientist with the University of Manitoba suggests just putting a lid on expansion is probably not a particularly effective way of managing phosphorus more carefully and believes there are more important strategies.

Clip-Dr. Don Flaten-University of Manitoba:
The classic principles of sound nutrient management regardless of whether it's fertilizer or manure, focus on making sure that you're putting it on at the right rate, at the right time and with the right placement.

Our current efforts working with all of the livestock producers as well as the people who apply synthetic fertilizer in the province are to make sure that we're eliminating as much as possible winter application on frozen soils or snow where the nutrients are more susceptible to being lost, making sure that we apply where ever possible underneath the soil surface through injection or incorporation so that the manure is not sitting on the surface and vulnerable to runoff and then making sure that we've got the right rate, trying to move towards balancing not only the nitrogen application with the requirement for the crop but also making sure that we don't apply more phosphorus than what the crop is going to remove.

It's this latter one that's probably the biggest challenge that we're trying to work with, is getting the phosphorus balance right because the phosphorus nitrogen mix in the manure is just not the same as what crops require.

Dr. Flaten suggests the principles of sound nutrient management, including putting manure on at the right rate, at the right place, at the right time, should play prominently in any relaxation of the moratorium.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council

Pork Producers Call for Science Based Approach to Lake Winnipeg Water Quality Issues

Karl Kynoch - Canadian Pork Council Traceability and Zoning Committee — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for August 19, 2010 (Episode 3395)

Manitoba's pork producers are calling on the provincial government to adopt a science based approach to efforts to curb water quality problems on lake Winnipeg.

In 2006, as part of its effort to reduce the amount of phosphorus ending up in Lake Winnipeg, the Manitoba government imposed a temporary moratorium on new hog barn construction or expansion across much of the province which was made permanent in 2008.

Manitoba Pork Council Chair Karl Kynoch says the ban has dramatically reduced the equity of pork producers in the affected area but done nothing to improve water quality.

Clip-Karl Kynoch-Manitoba Pork Council:
Even if they can justify being able expand and even if they have adequate land base to expand and make that land more valuable by adding a nutrient it has prevented them from doing that.

Another concern is we have some very viable packing plants in the province and, when you put a moratorium on like this without any science to back it, it also starts to restrict their access to hogs and might down the road make them unviable so there's a lot of concerns there to producers.

The interesting thing is that this ban was put on in 2006 and made permanent in 2008 for the hog industry, we've heard some reports on the radio lately coming from researchers and that that in fact Lake Winnipeg is at the worst it's been in ten years for algae blooms and this type of thing.

The other thing that's interesting when you talk to some of the old timers, the people that used to fish on that lake 60 years ago, they say there was algae blooms then that were so thick they couldn't paddle a canoe through.

Now we're seeing an increase in algae blooms at a time when there's a moratorium on the hog industry so I would say the ban on the hog industry has really done nothing for lake Winnipeg and that's a concern.

The fact that legislation was implemented without any science to back it and has now hurt producers but yet has not helped the lake.

Kynoch suggests, if a pork producer can show he has an adequate land base to accommodate manure application, he should be allowed to expand or modify his operation to maintain its viability.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council