.

Changes To Consider For Your Hog Farm

By Lianne Derocco


Changes in the way pigs are cared for and housed are being pushed as initiated by Tyson Food's recent letter sent out to hog farmers. Being the second largest processor of pork, chicken and beef worldwide there is much pressure put on them in terms of ensuring the humane treatment for animals being used for their products. Several suggestions have been made in order to improve hog conditions which also lead to the alleviation of any damage on the surrounding community.

There are several issues addressed by this letter, the first of which is video monitoring. Tyson suggests that placing video cameras throughout your farm to ensure that employees are following proper procedures. This includes monitoring the treatment of animals, as well as making sure that employees are following protocols to reduce contamination or the spread of disease.

Pain management is another issue brought up in the Tyson letter and this includes providing pain management for animals during tail docking and castration procedures. Currently, there are no approved drugs for this type of pain management and Tyson has said it will be researching this issue and recommends that farmers discuss this further with a trusted veterinarian.

A harder opinion came from Tyson with regards to asking some farms to actually put a stop on the use of manual blunt force euthanasia in killing piglets. They should consider opting for more human alternatives as many can be found. Along with it came Tyson's suggestion for better housing conditions for animals. This should begin with sows and piglets being placed in rooms where they can actually move more freely - the basic point being raised by Tyson.

Even when Tyson did not mention agricultural waste management in its letter, this is actually a significant part in hog farming where there are some rather easy means to reduce common waste management problems including foaming, sludge build-up, crusting as well as odors and flies commonly found where waste pits and waste lagoons are.

A natural product such as AgraSphere can be used as this is by far the easiest way to deal with issues and prevent its occurrence, even. As there are no chemicals contained in this sphere you can be sure that only natural bacteria microbes work to eat away waste thus helping in liquefying waste. Microbes can be instantly released upon tossing the biodegradable spheres into the waste pit or lagoon. Aside from preventing the problems to occur, the nutrient value of the waste is also improved and so better fertilizers for crops can be produced as additional means for hog farmers to earn extra income.




About the Author:



No comments :

Post a Comment