Page 13 - Demo

www.porknews.com.au Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2025 %u2013 Page 13QUALITY assurance was introduced to the Australian pig industry about 30 years ago.I was on the pilot program.It was started so that we could prove there were no antibiotics or other drugs in the pig meat.Plus check for any foreign objects, such as pieces of building material.At the last audit done on my farm on July 25, 2024, I was pulled up for not proving %u2013 writing down %u2013 that I was doing daily checks in the piggery, for example physically checking all the water nipples.I need evidence to prove these checks in case there is a prosecution.As the boss of my own piggery, I do have a system on my farm that takes place, but nothing is recorded.The staff on my farm, during their morning and afternoon walk arounds, open and close the shutters, look at every animal, feeder and water nipple, and look for dead and sick animals.That is their job.And every two weeks, I also get them to check all 500 water nipples in the grower and sow pens.My sow stalls have a trough that gets filled up when required.The person in charge of farrowing feeds by hand and the first thing he does, if the sow is not eating, is check the water nipple.My weaners on straw with the water bowls get checked morning and night, cleaning out the straw if needed.The requirement when moving pigs while in the pen is to check the nipples.No, nothing is recorded because, as daily checks, this is simply the routine on my farm.So, the results of the audit on my farm prompts me to question where we%u2019re heading as an industry.I can understand a big multi-site operation having a checklist in place.However, we as pig farmers know what it takes to produce and look after our animals.For me on my farm, I can%u2019t be up at the top with the best of them in performance, produce Australia%u2019s best pork chop and have fast growing pigs if they are not being looked after.It feels as though someone %u2013 or our APIQ system %u2013 is telling me that, for the past 40 years, me, my father and his father before him, were producing pigs incorrectly because we didn%u2019t record anything.This also questions my skilled piggery farm managers. Or is our credibility and knowledge being questioned by the animal do-gooder tree-hugging he/she/them flag-waving vegans?Why has the APIQ come to this?Recording so much in case there%u2019s a prosecution %u2013 from whom will it come?We have our vets who know what%u2019s in our fridges, there is a vet at the abattoir checking the pigs and we do an internal audit %u2013 mine is usually done by a vet.For me on my farm, I am finding it hard %u2013 with all the political correctness and what%u2019s involved to do something that I love.A 600-sow piggery was once a big family farm. Now my 300 pigs a week at the abattoir is more of a nuisance.I can feel all the rules and regulations sucking the passion out of me.So, I will record what I have to, just to keep my APIQ certificate, but again, it will mean nothing to anyone.And this leads me to ask, since as an industry we%u2019ve gone with Aus-Meat to do our auditing %u2013 something that costs me over $3000 a year now %u2013 why has it been six or so years with them?They have now implied that because it%u2019s not recorded, I%u2019m not looking after my pigs.I say that three audits every two years by a different vet should be good enough for us small family farms.Does anyone else hear what I am trying to say?And our imported meat, does that have the same quality control on it as our Australian pork meat? Stephen HoffrichterShark Lake PiggeryEsperance WALetter to the Editor It is the responsibility of those making submissions to ensure the correctness of their claims and statements. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher.