Readers’ letter: Pig farming business

You can still enjoy your Christmas ribs with a clean conscience!

Thea Samskott Translator

Christmas is over. A time of lutefisk, lamb ribs and Christmas ribs. These last few years however, the Christmas ribs have been up for debate. Organizations and individuals keep pulling out the very worst single cases over and over, and brands the pig industry as a horrible industry. It is time for more facts, and less distorted images in this debate.

As youths with an education related to agriculture it is extra interesting to follow the debate regarding livestock production. It is stained from a lot of misinformation. Today´s educations within livestock and agriculture focuses greatly on welfare, ethology and sustainability. This is the foundation for good production possibilities. Additionally, the study for veterinary medicine has a raised focus on preventative work with animals. Animal studies has courses dedicated to animal welfare and everything we learn throughout our education is sculpted around the animals being in optimal health. This is forward-looking and considers a sustainable focus on breeding, nutrition, ethology and treatment. As the specialists of tomorrow, we think it is especially important to lift this forward, and we feel safe in that Norwegian farmers in every production will welcome the measures that are the very best for their animals. To be able to follow through with such measurements, the farmers and all agriculture are dependent on good programs for subsidies, economy and support from politicians and us consumers.

These last years the pig industry has had a great focus on animal welfare. The most important measurement they have implemented is an animal welfare program for pigs. The program includes systematic work with animal´s welfare, to possibly best secure and document animal welfare for all

Norwegian pigs. Every kind of pig handler in Norway are included in the program for animal welfare. The program requires some terms from the pig producers. The farmer has to have systematic routines, and document follow-ups on sick and hurt animals. In addition, there should be visits from a vet following up on farmers securing routines for pens for sick livestock and correct slaughter, food and water supply, housing and room around each animal, frequency of tail biting within the animals on the farm and registered at the slaughterhouse and usage of bedding and rooting material. There are also requirements for competence for every farmer who keeps pigs.

There have long been strict terms regarding castration of pigs, which makes Norway’s castration practices one of the best in the world. Today, it is stated in the law that only trained veterinarians can castrate pigs. Norway is among the few countries in the world who require local anesthetics before surgical castration, as well as pain relievers post op. The alternative is a vaccine. It leads to the testicles shriveling, and this way prevents boar taint and poor taste in the meat. This vaccine is not 100% effective and with use the boars keep their libido much longer than with surgical castration. This leads to them being more uneasy and fighting more in the pen.

Even though the industry has accomplished a lot, there are many measurements they still wish to implement to strengthen animal welfare. Amongst other things they want to keep working on there being clear consequences for farmers who don’t follow the regulations and better surveillance and follow ups through systematization and controls. The industry systematizing the data gathered through the animal welfare program to get a better outline of the development in animal welfare in the pig industry and make it easier for the slaughterhouses to pick up on farmers who don’t meet the requirements. Additionally, data from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority´s existing controls on the slaughterhouse should be used to follow up on the development of animal welfare. When it comes to straw and litter for the pigs, the industry is currently talking to Innovation Norway about subsidies to test new builds of pens, group sizing, areas for activity and areas for laying.

Action provoking work is very important. Bad actions give bad behavior. Norwegian Agrarian Association and Norsvin have united to organize visiting rounds for farmers in the pig industry. The goal is to pay every farmer a visit. A pilot for visiting rounds was agreed upon and planned on starting this spring but is postponed due to the corona pandemic. Furthermore, the industry wishes to lift animal wellbeing as a theme for every organization within the industry, and to bring it up whenever farmers meet. An exciting research project taking place right now to promote animal welfare is DigiPig. This is a project where researchers work to create a supervision program that should be able to recognize negative and positive behavior amongst slaughter pigs. Such a program would alert the farmer with abnormalities through a mobile app and will boost animal welfare. With an alert system like this the farmers can early discover animals with problems and start preventative actions earlier than what they are able to today. This is an example of innovative research which it is exciting to bring to a workspace as students.

We experience that our generation is divided when it comes to what is good animal welfare and how the development should progress. Unfortunately, fewer people have direct associations with today´s pig industry and agriculture in general. Even though research is important, dissemination of research might be even more important these coming years. There are many decisions politicians, organizations and consumers have to make, and they have to be based on sustainability and the bigger picture.

The only thing remaining is to thank the pig farmers, and every other Norwegian farmer, who keep at it every day; for their animals, and to keep us fed. We, the coming generation in Norwegian agriculture are proud to take part in a forward-looking industry who wants the best for the consumers, farmers, and not least the animals. A lot has already been done and as we can tell there will be a lot of focus on animal welfare in the coming years. This ensures that you can eat Christmas dinner with a clean conscience. It is produced with care and love for the animals.

Marit Andrisdotter Kvam

animal science student

Steffen Fjellestad

veterinarian student

Bergljot Oldre veterinarian student

Henning Røyneberg bachelor in animal scienes - welfare and production