Farm-Scape, Episode 2148

The Canadian Pork Council says producer concerns related to space allowance requirements under the new Animal Care Assessment Tool are being explored and will be addressed over the next year or so.

The Animal Care Assessment Tool was developed as a voluntary stand alone component of Canadian Quality Assurance in an effort to address public concerns related to animal welfare.

Almost 100 CQA validators have been certified to conduct animal care audits in the three prairie provinces and several have already been scheduled.

However, a number of producers have expressed concerns related to space requirements as the pigs approach market weight.

CQA National Coordinator Dawn Lawrence says producers have indicated they provide less space than the program specifies but with no negative impact on health or productivity.

We have had a committee working in the background to better define the space allowance section and we're also looking at not only how to measure the pen, because that's relatively straightforward, but how to measure the animal space in that pen as the animals grow.

We don't expect to make any major changes to the materials themselves probably for the next year or so but, as we saw with the CQA program, when we first launched it we had a few questions that were a little more difficult to describe and explain and have implemented on the program.

I think the space requirement question for ACA is going to be similar and what we'll do with the program is simply address it as we move along, provide fact sheets and assistance to the producers and the official versions of the materials will be updated as we get everything clarified.

Lawrence says the general feeling is that most producers will not have problems with space allowance but, once the program is more widely circulated, we'll get a better idea of how it works on different types and sizes of operations.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.