Pressure grows on the trucking industry to introduce more humane trailers

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

A forward-thinking Sebringville transport company operator is introducing livestock trailers equipped with fans and misters to cool pigs in the summer heat. He fears that if the industry doesn't move on its own, rules will be forced on it that will be difficult to live with

by DON STONEMAN

The way that market hogs are shipped in Ontario is quietly changing.

Some trucking firms and larger producers are pulling trailers equipped to water and mist hogs so as to keep them cool and comfortable in the summer heat, and with hydraulic lift floors that remove the need for hogs to navigate steep ramps when loading and unloading.

Leading this charge is Doug Luckhart of Luckhart Transport in Sebringville and sister company HarBra Holdings Limited. Luckhart imports livestock trailers made by Pezzaioli in Italy, Europe's leading manufacturer, which are equipped with fans and misters to cool pigs in the summer heat.

As well, at the Luckhart shop north of the village, trailers manufactured by Barrett Livestock, based in Purcell, Okla., are modified with misters and waterers. Some of these trailers, like the Pezzaiolis, are equipped with hydraulically-lifted floors that allow hogs to be loaded and unloaded without steep ramps. Other trucks are equipped with longer ramps that allow hogs to move to the upper levels without facing a steep climb.

The pressure is growing on the trucking industry, Luckhart says. He fears that if the industry doesn't move on its own, rules will be forced on it that will be difficult to live with.

Packing plants and pig farms have dramatically changed how they raise, handle and slaughter pigs, but Luckhart points out that the last major innovation in livestock trucking, the "possum belly" or "pot" trailer, came nearly half a century ago. The pot remains the most common means of moving hogs to market.

Yet another change is in the pigs themselves. Within the last year, hog weights have increased dramatically to nearly 300 pounds from an average of 240. Heavier hogs don't navigate ramps in pot trailers as well.

Another development is the influence of animal activists and their ability to publicize their message on the Internet. Anita Krajnc, co-founder of Toronto Pig Save, was arrested and charged with mischief for giving water to market hogs in a truck in front of the Sofina plant in Burlington last June. Krajnc faces serious mischief charges and a trial is scheduled for next August. A video of Krajnc giving bottled water to pigs is on the Internet. Luckhart says if the industry used trucks equipped with misters and fans, stunts like Krajnc's wouldn't get the publicity they do.

The pork industry can't win with the Anita Krajnc issue, Luckhart says. "That video is not going away" and Krajnc does not look like "a bad person" for giving water to the pigs, he asserts.

"Even if they win this battle, they are fighting a war that cannot be won." Luckhart says if those pigs were in a truck equipped with misters and fans to make the pigs more comfortable, there would be no issue.

One pig farmer and trucker who bought a trailer from Luckhart spoke to Better Pork only under condition that his name not be used because he fears being targeted by activists. But he notes that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is becoming tougher on transporting pigs. Injured animals invite CFIA scrutiny and the hydraulic floor truck substantially reduces that chance of injury.

In 2010, CFIA administrative monetary penalties for violations rose to $1,500 for minor offenses, $6,000 for moderate, and $10,000 per severe violations, but it's not clear how these are defined, says Kathy Zurbrigg, surveillance analyst with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. She says roughly 0.7 per cent of the four million pigs shipped to federal plants in Ontario die in transit. The CFIA's policy is to perform post-mortems if three or more hogs die in a load.

There are only a few of these "humane" trailers in use in Ontario now. Pezzaioli has committed to deliver a truck a week to Ontario for the next two years and Luckhart's shop is capable of modifying eight Barrett trucks a year. Luckhart hopes that, with more than 100 trailers added in the next two years, that will make a "dent" in the number of humane trucks available to haul pigs in the province.

American packers watching
The change might happen faster than that.

In September, Warner Transport in Thedford bought a Pezzaioli trailer and a modified three-floor Barrett truck from Luckhart. In addition, Warner purchased a pair of hydraulic floor trailers from large American trailer maker Wilson, with one stationery flat floor and a second hydraulic floor that is raised after pigs are loaded. Owner Bill Warner says these are among the first few of this kind of trailer that the Sioux City, Iowa, manufacturer has built.

American packers, including some who feed their own pigs, are paying attention to what is happening in Ontario, Warner says. Warner trucks mostly to Conestoga Packers in Breslau and has had to deal with activist issues "on a weekly basis" for the past year.

Warner allows that the modified Barrett trucks cost nearly twice as much as a regular pot, and sidesteps a question about charging higher fees to customers. "We are in the experimental phase," he allows. "We are proving to people in the industry that it is needed." Still, in his mind, these more expensive trailers are "the cost of doing business. One of our concerns is to show that we are doing as much as we possibly can to make sure the pigs arrive in good shape."

Ontario's pork industry lacks so-called "shackle space," the capacity to process as many hogs as are produced. Long hauls out of the province are required, with market hogs being shipped as far away as Iowa and Quebec, according to Ontario Pork. Its numbers indicate that weekly hog shipments in December were up four per cent from a year before.

Luckhart says Quebec packers are asking him about "emergency plans" for truckloads of pigs shipped to Quebec, including how to deal with a traffic stoppage on the highway. Pulling off to the side "isn't a plan," Luckhart says. Pot trailers only keep their living cargo cool when they are moving. Traffic jams near the major Ontario plants in Burlington and Kitchener are a constant concern in the summer heat.

The Pezzaioli trailers have 21 high capacity fans, misters and water nipples. In addition, the insulated roofs can be raised 15 inches to allow hot air to escape.

Luckhart says it cost his company nearly $400,000 to develop its first modified hydraulic floor truck, which sold for $185,000. He predicts that prices for hauling pigs "will adjust" as new trailers are brought into the system. Some truckers are resisting. Luckhart says his biggest customers for humane trailers are farmers, not truckers. "They understand what is coming," he says.

There are positives associated with the new trailers. Both Warner and Luckhart say these new trucks are easier for the drivers to use and Luckhart notes that the average age of truck drivers in general in Canada is increasing.

Luckhart trucks pigs for Mathew Peters at Tavistock, who runs an 800-sow farrow-to-finish operation. Peters says the new trailers are much better for the hogs. They are less stressed because they don't have to go up the ramp into the truck and then down into the belly of the three-level trailer. Peters says the meat quality is better and that is important. He equates meat quality not only to less bruising but also to the colour of the meat at the packing plant.

Peters says he visited Holland recently to look at humane pig trailers. While the trucks are configured differently than the Pezzaiolis and the Barretts, a common feature is that the pigs don't have to climb ramps and the driver is always standing, rather than crouching, to get into a truck. Loading and unloading is more comfortable for the hogs and better for the drivers.

Warner spent 20 years trucking pigs to the United States and did extensive testing, including putting temperature recorders inside the truck. In hot weather, the temperatures inside the truck rise when the pigs are loading. He found it took a long time for temperatures inside the truck to drop after a freshly-loaded truck got on the highway. He found that "shocking."

Still, other than fewer dead pigs, the benefits, financial or otherwise, of less stressed pigs arriving at the packing plants haven't yet been measured in dollar terms. Warner says two-thirds of his business is shipping hogs to Conestoga Packers in Kitchener.

Temperature threshold
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada meat scientist Luigi Faucitano, based in Sherbrooke, Que., has been working on transportation of pigs since 2007. He supervised some research at Conestoga Packers conducted by employee and University of Guelph post-graduate student Jessica Fox and partially funded by Ontario Pork. Faucitano says Fox's work was the first to establish a temperature threshold for misting pigs in three-level "pot" trailers and found that, if the temperature outside the truck is 20 C, the inside of a loaded trailer is 30 C and the pigs are uncomfortable. Wetting pigs needs to start then. Fans are necessary to remove the humidity as well as to cool the pigs.  

"When pigs were sprinkled, the temperature of pigs was lower. The pigs were less thirsty," Faucitano says. He has seen the new hydraulic trucks but hasn't measured animal welfare parameters in them. Some of the older trailers have as many as five ramps and the angles of ramps should not exceed 10 to 15 degrees. Yet some trucks had ramps with 30-degree slopes.

In a presentation to producers last fall, Zurbrigg says a rise of two inches for every 12 inches of run is a 17 per cent grade. The more gradual incline on ramps reduces the heart rates on pigs, and the problem of "fatigued pigs" and losses due to pre-existing conditions is lessened.

Pigs defined as fatigued lie down and refuse to move while being loaded. For humane reasons and to reduce death losses, it is recommended that these pigs be allowed to rest for two hours and maybe be shipped another day.

So what is the future? Luckhart says one customer always asks for a hydraulic floor and a truck equipped with water bowls to move veal calves to New York State, for which he pays a $4 a head premium. The customer feels there are savings in terms of bruising and dehydration, he says.

Luckhart thinks there is value in humane hauling of pigs; a dollar figure just hasn't been put to it yet. In the meantime, social pressure is growing to treat pigs in a more humane manner. "The solution to most problems is to not give the opposition anything to work with," Luckhart says. BP