Eye On Europe: German slaughterhouse guarantees hog payments five months ahead

Friday, May 30, 2008

When these German farmers pen their weaners in the feeding barn, they'll know the slaughter price for each. But, in return, the co-operative involved demands that high welfare and environmental standards are followed

by NORMAN DUNN

A payment system which gives the farmer a guaranteed price five months ahead of slaughter will be introduced this summer by one of Europe's largest pork processors.
The so-called "five-month price system" means that farmers will know more or less exactly what they are going to get from the slaughterhouse for each hog before feeding actually starts. This offers better planning possibilities for the slaughterhouse, but for the farmers too, according to Westfleisch, a co-operative which handles 5.4 million hogs per year in its north German plants.

This is a pilot project limited initially to 2,000 hogs per week with Westfleisch calculating the five-month prices in co-operation with the country's RMX agricultural commodity futures exchange. It is voluntary so far and applies only to hog hybrids and terminal crosses approved by the slaughter concern.

But even before the scheme is launched, some of the slaughter concern's 4,000-plus hog suppliers are sounding the alarm. Maybe the five-month-price system could be used to force feeders to agree to a lower long-term price by levelling off predicted peaks and troughs? 

First signs indicate that Westfleisch and RMX are taking a fair view of future developments, though. For instance, with slaughterweight prices jumping at the end of February from around the equivalent of $2 to 2.23 per kilogram, Westfleisch agrees that returns will probably be even higher as the summer wears on with a likely average for the year of $2.60 a kilogram. However, no fixed five-month-price is actually being discussed until the pilot project starts in May.

At the same time, Westfleisch wants something in return. It is encouraging its farmer suppliers to sign new quality contracts aimed at ensuring continued high standards of welfare and environmental-protection in hog production.

At the beginning of this year, the co-op's chairman, Dr. Helfried Giesen, announced that the new contracts would entail farmers undertaking, for example, immediate treatment of hog injuries or sickness and avoiding production systems which may cause suffering. Naturally, such expectations were always implicit, but now the conditions are contractual and, for the first time, subject to spot checks and assessments by independent organizations.

REWE, Germany's second largest supermarket chain, is building on the Westfleisch initiative by marketing the co-op's pork and pork products with full information about the quality production contracts under the motto: "A new approach towards responsible retailing."

Rhineland survey shows a 24-day suckling period is the best
Nowadays, the best hog production herds in northwest Germany manage 12 piglets weaned per litter. But advisers working with the farmer-owned Rhineland Swine Breeders Association have become horrified at what this production is costing in terms of culled young sows or gilts.

They worked out that a sow suckling 12 litter members needs a daily energy intake of around 100 megajoules. Often gilts just cannot manage the feed intake and required milk output, and dramatic weight loss is the result, followed by fertility and health problems.

After noting that systems with suckling periods of 30 days and more sometimes send more than 20 per cent of gilts down the road after their first litter, the Rhineland advisers decided on a survey of member results to see if an optimum suckling period length could be identified.

This showed that sow culling could be kept at, or even below, the accepted herd maximum of 10 per cent per litter up to the fourth litter, where the suckling period was between 22 and 26 days. The most successful herds in this respect averaged 24 days from birth to weaning.

The survey, taken in 2007 and covering 155 herds, revealed lots of other advantages for suckling periods of around 24 days. First of all, farms with 30 and more suckling days – and no fewer than 11 farms followed this route with an average of 35 days milking per litter – naturally managed only 2.05 litters per year. Herds with less than 25 days suckling managed 2.3 farrowings and therefore three extra piglets a year.

Another disadvantage of the longer suckling periods was that litter members, particularly with gilts, tended to grow apart after around 25 days suckling. There was progressively less milk available for the biggest litters. Only the strongest were able to grab a decent helping at the milk bar.

At the other end of the scale – 21 days suckling and below – there were certainly more weaners per sow annually, but the strain was obviously too much for most sows. Among other penalties, there's little time for proper regeneration of the ovaries. Replacement rate soared to over 50 per cent in some cases.

A few days extra suckling showed a better route ahead with 24 days suckling giving 23 weaners per sow each year on average.

Cutting health-check costs on the slaughter line
Should every hog carcass on the slaughter line undergo a full veterinary inspection – even if other records are available showing that the hogs come from high-health production systems? Up until now, most European countries have enforced the costly and time-consuming approach of comprehensive veterinary checking for all animals on the slaughter line.

But Netherlands-based VION, the world's third-largest hog slaughter and processing group, wants to change things in this respect and has introduced a new veterinary control system called "supply chain inspection" in four of its Dutch slaughter plants.

This involves each hog or batch of hogs being classified for disease risk before they even arrive at the slaughterhouse. The classification is according to conditions on the farm from which they were shipped and is backed up by regular blood tests or microbiological samples from animals and barns. What the vets on the slaughter line then do is adjust the intensity of their carcass inspections to the farm classification.

Veterinary and meat hygiene experts from the Netherlands have worked out additional requirements for smooth running of the system. These include disease and mortality records from each farm made available to the slaughterhouse vets. Hog farms in the system must also be independently certified as participants in a recognized quality-assurance meat production program which includes details of other aspects of hog production, such as ration components and the elevators supplying the feed.

Next step for the streamlined and more transparent slaughterhouse veterinary inspection is its adoption in German plants. And plans are for it to be introduced this summer in a first VION slaughterhouse.

Europe searches for an alternative to castration
Swine protection pressure groups are giving European legislators, not to mention farmers and veterinarians, plenty to think about currently.

In the last issue of Better Pork, we noted that Switzerland had already banned piglet castration without anesthetic and that Norway is to follow suit in January of next year. Meanwhile Dutch retailers and fast food outlets have announced that, as from next January, they will no longer sell pork from male hogs not anesthetized during castration. Britain, Ireland, most of Spain and Portugal have been let off the hook, because male hogs are slaughtered there at lighter weights before there's any real danger of boar taint developing. Boar taint, or the risk of it in pork, is the main reason for castration in the first place.

But the rest of Europe sees the writing on the wall for conventional piglet castration and the hunt is now on for ways to meet the new demands. So far, the winner everywhere is simple injection of an anesthetic or painkiller before castration.

But the flurry of research into other methods emphasizes that this is an expensive solution – the equivalent of $2 per piglet, according to the latest figures. And for such injections most countries nowadays insist that a vet carries them out. Farmers don't need to be told how much this can add to the bill.

"We've also looked at short-term gas stunning of piglets with a CO2/O2 mix," explains Jesper Petersen, special veterinary consultant with the Danish Meat Association. "Another possibility is avoiding surgery altogether through immuno-castration vaccination – castration by injection."

The Danes have also looked at trials with chicory root in feed for entire male hogs. This is meant to reduce the risk of boar taint. "But we've found you need a substantial amount of chicory for the effect." Petersen adds. Sexed semen for all-female slaughter hogs is another answer being examined. But costs are high here, too.

What about selection of carcasses on the slaughter line? Denmark followed this tip and introduced a successful system for sniffing-out tainted boar carcasses via an "electronic nose."

"We discovered a problem, though," recalls Petersen. "Our system was tuned to react to the metabolite skatole as indicator of boar taint. One of our biggest pork buyers, Germany, would only accept boar carcasses if they were selected according to absence of another taint indicator, the male steroid androstenone. So that solution went out the window as well."  

Over in the Netherlands, the establishment of breeding lines especially selected for no-taint males has a future, according to Roel Veerkamp from the Animal Sciences Group (ASG) of Wageningen University.

In fact, a gene important for boar taint production has already been identified by ASG scientists and its effect in breeding is now being tested. "But it is unfortunately a long-term operation with maybe five to 10 years still ahead," he cautions.

This is why the main interest in Europe has moved to immuno-castration vaccination, a solution already being applied in Australia, New Zealand and Mexico (Pfizer Pharma, Improvac). The European Union (EU) has so far kept immuno-castration outside its borders, but it is understood that this spring the pharmaceutical company Merial has applied for permission to test its castration vaccine in the EU. The latest news is that the Danish Meat Association and the Dutch ASG are preparing for intensive trials starting this summer. BP