Farm-Scape is sponsored by Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork Play Audio Farm-Scape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork.

Farm-Scape, Episode 1160

The Canadian Pork Council is targeting mid-2005 as the point at which pigs will have to originate and be raised on farms certified under the Canadian Quality Assurance program to maintain CQA recognition.

Effective October 1, 2002 it became a requirement that all farms involved with Canadian Quality Assurance must only acquire stock from other CQA, or equivalent, farms to maintain their recognition.

National CQA Coordinator Dawn LeBlanc says, at this point, those supplier barns are not required to be fully validated under the program but they must at least be enrolled and working toward validation.

"We've aimed for mid-2005 to actually make it a full requirement for recognition, rather than simply enrollment.

This requirement will apply both to weanlings and breeding stock. If producers are purchasing weanling pigs to finish out on their operation and they're coming from a Canadian source, which is normally the case, that source farm must at this point be enrolled on the CQA program.

That means they will have contacted their provincial coordinator, signed up, have received their program materials and are working toward completing their on farm assessment form. If you're getting breeding stock from a Canadian source it's the same thing, the breeding stock supplier must be enrolled in the program.

If the animals are coming in from out of country, then what we'd be looking at is an equivalency. Any countries who are supplying breeding stock to Canada, for the most part, have an equivalent program.

For example the Americans have the PQA program, Pork Quality Assurance. "

LeBlanc says CQA officials will be examining the programs these supply herds are on, if they're from out of the country, and addressing the matter on a case by case basis.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.