Cover Story: Contented pigs, discontented producers

Monday, August 9, 2010

Reduced premiums, higher welfare standards and extra trucking costs
are all contributing to producer discontent. But duBreton insists that they still are better off than under the free market

by DON STONEMAN

When Mildmay farmer Ron Harkness started raising pigs in April 2009 for the Humane Pork program offered by Quebec packer duBreton, he thought it represented an opportunity for long-term sales. But it wasn't to be. He shipped his last certified pigs in December.

Harkness liked the money. He received $72 for a 55-pound Certified Humane weaner when the depressed market for conventional finished hogs returned barely $89 an animal. But duBreton's standards became an elusive moving target. The company changed the conditions of the contract in mid-stream, Harkness charges.

Harkness, who farms with his wife Carolyn, had converted his 24-crate farrowing room to 15 approved crates, reducing his sow herd by one third to 45. He was hoping to get certification to finish the animals when he was told the standards had changed, and sows couldn't be "locked in" to a portion of the oversized stall so that they don't crush baby pigs.

"They told us, these crates weren't any good any more. And we had just spent $7,000 on them three months before. Where is it going to stop? What are they going to change next?"

Harkness wasn't alone in his unhappiness. The duBreton program in Ontario has become extremely controversial. Producers claim that duBreton and its retail customers have raised the animal welfare standard bar at the same time as it has reduced premiums paid over the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food's calculated cost of production.

Meanwhile, depressed hog markets in Ontario rose last spring to heights not seen in years, leaving producers who have changed their barns to meet Humane Pork standards for sow stalls wondering if they should market to conventional markets or stay with duBreton.

Farmers who spoke to Better Pork for previous stories on the duBreton program refused to be interviewed on the record. Some farmers who have quit the program refused to comment. Others who are staying on also refused to comment.

About 100 producers in Ontario have contracts with duBreton, says Andrew Marks, Ontario Pork's director of sales and logistics. The number has been steady over three years. "Some dropped out. Others signed up," he says.

Two years ago, the company's hog procurement officer Germain Camiré told Better Pork: "We know we are paying a lot of money. We want to keep producers for a long time."

Now, Camiré confirms that the premiums of $18 a hog over cost of production have been cut to $12 as expired production contracts with producers are renewed. "For the last two years, it has been tough to support the program," he says, while asserting that producers were told last winter the premium would be reduced.

Aside from the premium, the other main issue is the complexities of meeting European Union (EU) requirements, says Camiré. The EU demands that pork be free of Ractopamine (Paylean), he notes.

"I think in the last two years the producers have been really well treated," says Vincent Breton, operator of duBreton. He acknowledges that feed conversion is not as favourable as with commodity pork. Nevertheless, he thinks producers have done well on the duBreton Certified Humane program.

The volume of commodity pork has probably fallen 20 per cent in Ontario in two years as producers went out of business, Breton says. "All our producers survived. I guess they are not doing that badly."

He doesn't think many producers will jump to the volatile free market just because duBreton premiums have fallen and commodity prices have risen for now. "If you have a cost of production guarantee, will you quit that protection to go on the free market? That is the question they have to answer. I think the answer is pretty easy."

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency recognizes two types of feed mills when it is approving mills to produce feed for producing meat to export to the EU, Camiré says. One protocol is for feed to come from mill systems that are Paylean-free, such as Jones Feed Mills, headquartered in Linwood, north of Waterloo. Jones owns the majority of sows in the duBreton feeding program in Ontario, contracting production out to small farmers.

A second more complex protocol applies to mill systems where Paylean is used in some feeds and some mills, but not in others. Camiré says that this protocol involves a paper trail and audits to ensure that pigs are never exposed to feed that may have been tainted with Paylean. "Jones is already on the program," Camiré explains. "Working with only one supplier is simpler for me."

But what may be simpler for Camiré was unacceptable to Harkness. "They phoned here and told us we would have to quit feeding Shur-Gain feed to the pigs," Harkness says. "I said 'no, I don't think we are going to do that.' I have dealt with the Shur-Gain mill in Belmore all my life. I sit across the aisle in church from the owner."

Harkness says he can buy pig starter from a Shur-Gain mill that doesn't have Paylean on the premises and now that he is off the program, he still does.

Moreover, says Harkness, "now they are charging $2 for the trucking, so (the $18 premium) became $12 and now it becomes $10." Harkness had already changed genetic suppliers to suit his customer.

That Shur-Gain ban was the final straw for Harkness, who cancelled a Genetiporc boar he had ordered the day before, and gave 30 days notice that he intended to end the contract. (Genetiporc is a sister company to duBreton.)  Harkness says his weaner pigs were worth $20 less than the duBreton price on local markets. He began shipping his hogs to the Ontario pool.

Producers pay
Camiré acknowledges that trucking is a sore point. He says duBreton pays the freight from a yard in Elmira to the company's plant in Rivière du Loup, Que.

Previously, the packer covered costs from local yards and producers were responsible for getting their pigs there. Now they must pay to get pigs to an assembly point in Elmira and a single trucker has the business of hauling to duBreton's Quebec plant.

Camiré says the extra fees come into effect when a contract is renewed. Truckers can try to charge extra to Elmira for now, Camiré says. For some producers, it is $1 or $2 more, he allows. However, Ontario Pork has advised producers not to pay the extra trucking fees until new contracts come into effect.

Trucking companies have to do more paperwork now that pork is being shipped to the EU, Camiré argues. Many producers on the program are old-order Mennonite or Amish and don't have phones and fax machines.

Ontario Pork's Andrew Marks says he became aware of the new contracts from duBreton about May 20. He agrees that producers are concerned because of the requirement to buy feed from Jones and the new fee to freight pigs to the Elmira assembly yard.

Marks says Ontario Pork added a couple of clauses to new duBreton contracts. They gave a producer the option to give 120 days notice of quitting the program if the price of feed from the single supplier is too high.

Marks says the old contracts said that pigs must be raised according to Humane certification standards but didn't spell them out.

However, Jackie Sleeper, director of certification for Humane Farm Animal Care, based in Virginia, says the standards for certifying pork production were last revised in 2008.
The new contract specifies that Whole Foods Market IP, LP., headquartered in Austin, Tex., has a hand in the inspections, and the old contracts did not say that, Marks says.

Camiré explains there is a document called 5-Step, specific to Whole Foods, an important North American client for duBreton. It is administered by a company called Global Animal Partnership, based in Washington, D.C.

A supplier has to change with the program that is demanded, Breton says. "Otherwise someone else will do it," or perhaps shelf space will be lost.

Whole Foods is trying to do something different than other companies, Camiré explains. Step one of its 5-Step program "is close" to Certified Humane with a minimum 28 days before weaning.

Step two is 35 days on the sow before weaning, more space for farrowing and less trucking time. Steps 3-4 call for a minimum weaning age for piglets of 42 days, and steps 5 and 5+ call for a remarkable 56 days, a weaning period that dramatically reduces the turnover of a sow in terms of productivity.

Western Ontario farmers will never be asked to go to Step 2 of Whole Foods' five-step program because it is not attainable, Camiré asserts. That stage of certification calls for pigs to travel no more than eight hours on a truck to a processing plant market. Fourteen hours to duBreton's Riviere du Loup plant is attainable, but eight hours is not, Camiré says.  According to the rules, removing animals from the truck for rest before continuing the journey is prohibited.

The trademark name 5-Step is owned by Whole Foods. "Because Whole Foods is one of our main buyers, we have to work with them. Producers have to be Certified Humane, EU approved and Step approved," Camiré says.

Certification visits
More certification programs are coming on board. In early June, Camiré visited 15 farms with a buyer from Applegate Farms, based in Bridgewater, N.J., which has its own certification program. "The programs are all close, but the buyers don't trust the other guys and they want to see the farms personally," Camiré says.

Every company, he says, tries "to be innovative and propose something different to its customers."

DuBreton has to do this to sell all parts of a pig carcass at the best possible price, Camiré explains. Not all retailers can sell all the pieces of the carcass.

Applegate Farms' website has links to a CBS television report slamming "industrial" livestock farms and the use of antibiotics to speed growth and compensate for unsanitary conditions. There is also a link to a Center For Disease Control website emphasizing that humans can't get sick from eating pork.

A consumer can key the barcode on Applegate products into the company website to find where the meat from that animal was produced. The website says beef and pork are "coming soon." Applegate did not respond to Better Pork's request for an interview and more information on the program.

Camiré says a key difference between Certified Humane and the Step program is the stalls, which is why Harkness quit. The Humane standards call for a maximum of one third of the floor space to be slatted. Under the Step program, only 25 per cent slatted floors are allowed and more bedding is required.

Some producers have modified their barns. Others have quit, Camiré admits.

Some of the rules don't even apply to the pigs. On Step 5 farms, for example, there are rules for all domestic animals, including dogs and cats – for example, "dogs must not be tethered." And Step 5 requires that pigs must spend their entire lives on the same farm and be slaughtered there "which is crazy," Camiré says.

A sore point for some farmers is duBreton's adoption of a heavier weight grid. Some producers, who spoke to Better Pork for this story on the condition that they not be identified, say it is difficult and expensive to feed Genetiporc pigs to the heavier weights. So why is duBreton promoting this? "We want to compete with the Americans," who raise hogs to heavier weights, Camiré explains.

Whole Foods' inspector Anne Malleau did not respond immediately to a request for an interview. However, two Whole Foods employees called Better Pork but refused to leave their names and would not be identified as spokespersons. Both said that, for reasons of competitiveness in the grocery industry, Whole Foods has "a long-standing policy" of not granting interviews to trade publications.

A January 2005 press release announced that Malleau is the executive-director of the new Animal Compassion Foundation. The release states: "To help meat producers achieve a higher standard of animal welfare excellence while still maintaining economic viability, the Foundation will . . . search the planet for innovative ranchers and farmers who raise their animals with the well-being of the animal rather than producer productivity as the primary goal."

Producers who have been on the program complain that the rules against farrowing stalls, for example, contribute to death losses among small pigs.

Bruce County veterinarian Mike deGroot works with a group of a dozen producers in Bruce and Huron Counties on a swine health surveillance study run by provincial agriculture ministry pork health specialist Tim Blackwell, and funded by the federal government. Save for one conventional stall operator, all producers are, or have been, duBreton suppliers. Pre-weaning mortality rates are generally higher than conventional rates, deGroot says. But if sows are managed differently, more small piglets can be kept alive, he asserts.

It is important to start with pens that are clean and dry. But most are small farms, many with as few as 20 sows, and they are getting very large litters. Seventeen or 18 piglets per litter "are not that uncommon and they don't have any place to cross-foster them" when only two sows farrow at a time.

The study shows that most deaths are in the first two to three days and are either "starve outs" or the result of crushing, which most often happens to piglets that are weak from lack of food.

One producer says that, in six months he has never had less than 14 piglets per sow.  "Split suckling seems to help." Bigger pigs are taken away to allow smaller pigs to suckle and brought back later. On other farms, some pigs are fed on milk replacer. Crates could be redesigned, he says.

Minimizing noise in farrowing rooms keeps the sows from being disturbed and getting up as much. "We are working at getting these pigs off to a good start," he says.

DeGroot says most sows are boar-bred and are Genetiporc lines. "I'm not sure if that is the genetics or boar breeding, or management on their part."

The industry standard in conventional barns for mortality is 10 to 14 per cent. The average mortality in this study is 23 per cent.

Dr. Ken Bridge is also working on the study Blackwell is supervising. He wouldn't comment specifically on the duBreton program, but says pigs can certainly be raised without antibiotics if barn and management conditions are right. And this can be done even in barns that are not heated and not ventilated. Starting with specific pathogen free sows is essential, he asserts.

Harkness continues to raise his pigs on Paylean-free feeds and on the same regime that suited the Certified Humane program. "I never believed in using that stuff anyway," he says. For now, he is selling pork from his freezer raised on a Paylean-free feed program. He says it tastes better than conventional pork.

Harkness used to raise hogs on contract for Maple Leaf Pork, which owned Shur-Gain feeds at the time. "People said (Maple Leaf Chief Executive Officer) Michael McCain was a bully," Harkness says. But Michael McCain didn't make me feed Shur-Gain feeds." In fact, he got an extra dollar a pig for using feed from the sister company.

He insists that he is an optimist and "something else will come along. When one door closes, another opens." BP

Behind Whole Foods' 5-Step program
Pork producers dealing with Quebec-based Viande duBreton may have heard about Whole Foods, but likely not about Global Animal Partnership (GAP), which runs Whole Foods' 5-Step program.

The board of directors is a who's who representing groups that tread a thin line between animal welfarists and animal rightists, with a few marketers thrown in "for credibility," says Leslie Ballentine, who tracks animal welfare and rights groups for the Ontario Farm Animal Council.

GAP's chair, according to its website, is Joyce D'Silva, director of public affairs for Compassion in World Farming, which campaigns to end factory farming and long-distance transportation of livestock.

Mike Baker is chief executive officer of the World Society for the Protection of Animals. Its mandate is to do away with factory farming.

Steven Gross is identified as "a corporate consultant" to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which opposes eating meat in general, and chief executive officer of Farm Forward, another anti-factory farm group.

Director John Mackey, co-founder and chief executive officer of Whole Foods, announced he was a vegan in a 2003 Whole Foods press release.

Wayne Pacelle is president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). "In 2009, we passed legislation in California to ban tail-docking, and in Michigan we passed legislation to phase out the worst confinement practices for veal calves, breeding sows and laying hens," Pacelle says in the HSUS 2009 annual report.

Dan Probert is owner of Probert Ranch and executive director of Country Natural Meat, based in the western United States.

George Siemon is CEO of Organic Valley Family of Farms and Jim Webster is described as "Leader of the Animal Behaviour & Welfare Centre, and Chair of the Ruakura Animal Ethics committee."

Paul Willis is the manager of Niman Ranch Pork County and owner-operator of the Willis Free Range Pig Farm.

"To date, third-party audited and certified farms are raising more than 12.7 million animals according to our 5 Step Animal Welfare Rating standards," says a web page for Miyun Park, GAP's executive director.

Former University of Guelph professor Ian Duncan resigned as GAP vice-chair last February in order to work for the organization developing welfare standards and training inspectors. "It sounds fairly excessive to have extreme animal rights groups on board.

We will see how it works out," Duncan says. "I think the idea was that if we could get one or two of the people we trust, we wouldn't be criticized from there. We haven't been so far."

Duncan says the extremist groups are moderating. "I think they now see they can have more effect on animal welfare by having a less extreme approach."

He notes that there are 12-14 GAP inspectors qualified across Canada and the United States and another five or six will be trained in the fall. "This started as a Whole Foods market initiative. They decided it was too important to keep to themselves."

At the end of June, Whole Foods' exclusive rights to the certified label expired. "We will be looking for other retailers to carry their certified foods," Duncan says. BP
 

Showcase farm contract derails
North Lancaster farmer Richard Sampson says he signed a 10-year contract with Viande duBreton in 2003 and built a barn to meet their specifications for Certified Humane Pork and showcase their production.

"We had visitors here from Japan, Denmark, France . . . a lot of Americans," recalls Sampson.

The arrangement has derailed since and last year an arbitrator in the Quebec Superior Court awarded Richard and Louise Sampson $840,000 plus costs for the period spanning 2003 to 2007. A separate arbitration will be held for later years.

Sampson says he started legal proceedings against duBreton in June of last year, and the company quit picking up his pigs a month later.

 "They never respected the contract from day one," Sampson charges.

Vincent Breton, president of Les Viande duBreton, declined to comment on the Sampson case. "We have a private company, we had a contract with Richard Sampson and I won't discuss with you in public, out loud, the problem with one contract we had."

Sampson says emptying his 400-sow barn last February was "the cheapest way to survive" the hog price downturn.

Sampson says he signed with duBreton before he knew the contract should be reviewed by Ontario Pork as part of its marketing authority. "Ontario Pork was not too happy. They said there were too many ambiguities," Sampson says.

Sampson says if he did it over again he would make sure the pork board saw the contract. The board "needs to be even stronger than they are now in protecting farmers," he says.

A spokesperson for Ontario Pork says the Sampson case is the only one it is aware of where litigation is involved between a producer and duBreton. BP