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Fixing the Problems - Improving Animal Handling Practices
by Jennifer Shike
The judge made a final pass through the ring of competitive middleweight crossbred barrows at the San Angelo Stock Show. As he approached the end of the ring, he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.
“Hey, over here – maybe we should get this pig out of here,” the ring worker said.
The judge turned around and saw one of the barrows in the class turning purple and quivering. Tears streamed down the face of the pig’s young owner – a young girl who didn’t know how to help her stressing pig. She continued to pat her pig in order to get him up so she could finish showing him. She didn’t understand what was happening.
The judge knelt down beside her, trying to keep the tears of anger out of his own eyes. With a soothing voice, he told her it would be all right. He assured her it wasn’t her fault and she shouldn’t feel bad. The ring workers helped get her pig up and moved him out of the ring where they watered him and let him rest for a while.
Before the judge dismissed the rest of the pigs in the class to place the top end, he told everyone to stop and listen for a minute.
“What’s going on here breaks my heart,” the judge said. “What happened in this ring is not right. It’s time that we stop this. It’s not my intent to embarrass anyone – especially the young lady. This wasn’t her fault. I’m not trying to embarrass the parents, the family, the breeders of this pig, or anyone. Let me hold my hand up first and tell you that on our farm, we have used stress carriers. We have fed Paylean. We’ve tried to fit our pigs and make them acceptable like everyone else. But collectively – as a group of parents, county agents, NSR representatives, youth sponsors, hog breeders, feeders and feed companies – we all have to work together to stand up and take responsibility to fix this problem.
This isn’t right. Youngsters shouldn’t have to worry about their pig dying as they walk them across the ring. It’s not right for the image of our product and what we are trying to do. This little girl shouldn’t have to be going through this pain as she walks back to her pen. We’ve come to the point where we have a problem and it’s a problem that needs fixing. We need to go to work to get it done. If it needs rules, then we need to implement rules to stop the problem. If it doesn’t need rules, then we all need to stand up and try to eliminate these problems on our own. Whether it’s the stress gene, dehydration, feed additives, or whatever is needed to create that certain look, we may need to consider that this may not be the right look anymore.”
The crowd applauded and applauded as the judge, Steve Cobb, let the barrows out of the ring. Now, what are we going to do with his message? We live in a time where our animal handling methods are failing. They are failing our projects, and they are failing our kids.
Links in a chain
The partnerships created by the parent, the youth exhibitor, the breeder, the 4-H leader or county agent, the show management, the trucker and the packer are like links in a chain, says Dr. Jodi Sterle, assistant professor and extension swine specialist at Texas A&M University.
“If any of these links in the chain don’t follow through with their job, then the integrity of the whole system is compromised,” Sterle says.
Today’s show pig is usually fed by itself – it doesn’t need to compete for feed. This show pig leads a pretty quiet life until it gets to the show and its world is completely disrupted. Suddenly, the pig has been loaded onto a trailer and hauled (in hot weather). Then, its water is changed. Its feed is changed. And the pig finds itself in a loud, noisy environment where its suddenly introduced to the natural pecking order that occurs when pigs get together.
Factor in the environment and the differences in temperature and humidity. Add to this the potentially harmful effects of feed additives that can alter metabolic rate and stress. Finally, consider the fact that pigs are very perceptive to what’s going on around them. If everyone is nervous and yelling, this upsets kids and their pigs. The kids drive the pigs harder and the pigs pick up that something is wrong.
“We’ve created a fragile organism,” Sterle says. “We suspect our pig has the stress gene. Then, we manipulate its diet. We know our pig can’t handle stress well, but we hope it will make it through this show. We withhold water to make weight, and then it happens. One of those factors is the straw that breaks the camel’s back and our pig becomes a dead or a downer.”
We expect too much, she adds. Each of these factors alone is not bad in itself, but when you multiply it with the other factors, it becomes too much stress on the pig.
Minimizing stress at shows
Put yourself in the pig’s place, Sterle recommends. If you are standing in a big line at the show waiting to weigh your pig and you feel thirsty, your pig may be thirsty, too. If you feel hot, your pig probably feels hot as well. If you are nervous at the show, your pig will feel nervous, too.
“Consider each stress factor individually and take care of it,” she says. “If you want your pig to end up at a certain weight, start weighing and calculating early. Don’t jack them up high in weight and bring them back. And most importantly, never withhold water.”
You should also avoid handling pigs in the heat of the day – whether it’s weighing, hauling, handling, etc. Show management may need to consider changing the time when hogs are allowed to come in so it’s better for animal handling and not just more convenient for show management and exhibitors. However, if you do have to handle hogs in warm weather, be sure to keep them in the shade with adequate water as much as possible.
“Our industry needs to stop using the stress gene,” Sterle says. “There was a time in our industry when the stress gene helped us make some ‘progress’ quickly. We didn’t have the nutrition, management, other genetics, etc., to be where we wanted to be – good, bad or indifferent. Now we have everything in place. What the stress gene is known for, we can now do in different ways without the negatives involved with the stress gene.”
The type of hog that is winning today is a matter of trend and type selection in the industry, Steve Cobb says.
“I completely disagree that you need the stress gene to win,” he says. “There are hundreds of examples of animals that are very muscular, correct, balanced and sound that are non-stress carriers. I will challenge anyone on that issue. We can prove it on our farm and many others that you don’t need the stress gene to make exceptional show pigs.”
Youth exhibitors also need to realize the importance of properly managing feed additives and medication. Anything that alters the physiological state or metabolic rate of the pig can contribute to how they react in a stressful situation such as showing or transportation.
“If it’s not on the medication or feed label, don’t do it,” Sterle says. “If you have questions, involve a veterinarian first. Don’t talk to your friends or even breeders about medications – go to someone who is trained in that area specifically.”
Improved animal handling practices at swine shows can also make a difference in the number of deads and downers – animals that can’t walk off of the truck or are dead upon arrival at the packing plant.
The number of deads and downers at the 2001 San Antonio Stock Show was extremely high, so change had to be made. Glen Alan Phillips, livestock director of the San Antonio Stock Show, says the show management looked in the mirror to see if they were doing their best and realized they could do more. The changes they have implemented have significantly decreased the number of deads and downers.
Phillips worked closely with Sterle to improve their animal handling procedures and load-out process. One of the first steps was to educate their swine committee about proper animal handling procedures and the importance of their role at the show. They no longer use hot shots to help load hogs onto the trailer and water is of utmost importance in the load-out procedure. After the barrows leave the ring, there is an area where problem hogs (hogs showing signs of stress) can be watered and rest until the end of the day. The other hogs are taken to a holding area with water troughs. The barrows have a chance to meander and rest for a while in three very large holding pens.
Then, one pen is moved at a time to the load-out area. San Antonio has developed a new swine lift that looks like the floor of a trailer. The hogs actually move themselves onto the trailer. Phillips believes it could be because the floor looks like a trailer and they are used to loading onto trailers. The swine committee does use rattle paddles to help move the hogs onto the lift if needed. In addition, San Antonio has a stationary loading platform that hogs are moved onto before going onto the truck. This helps speed up the process as they can only load 15 hogs at a time on the swine lift. Truckers are also told not to use hot shots in the loading process.
“On our end, it has been more labor intensive,” Phillips says. “But at the same time, it has become a little bit easier. We had an extreme decrease in deads and downers this year.”
Phillips says swine exhibitors need to address the issue of deads and downers because the packers are getting frustrated. Youth need to remember why they participate in livestock projects. Ultimately, these animals will go back into the food chain so they need to do everything they can to assure they are putting a quality product back into the food chain.
“Our animal husbandry needs to continue to be a focus,” Phillips says. “I think we’ve lost sight of that. We chase the purple ribbon so hard that we forget about the animal end of it.”
A window to agriculture
At the San Antonio Stock Show, their motto is “Helping Youth Today So Agriculture Can Grow Tomorrow.” Phillips explains that fewer people are being raised in rural communities and farms. One of their missions is to bring agriculture to the public. In Texas, 50 percent of the population is based in six counties – this just shows the major shift from rural to urban communities.
“Our youth are flag bearers for agriculture today,” Phillips says. “We want people who visit our stock shows to see the animals, see how well they are being cared for, and to become a friend of agriculture especially when legislation topics and meat issues arise.”
Sterle adds that perception is reality. Whatever the public sees or thinks they see happening at county fairs and stock shows, they believe relates to the entire agriculture industry.
“Our society has become more sensitive,” Sterle says. “They just don’t understand regular production practices, yet alone extremes. They may not understand the benefits to the animal and why we do things. They believe what they see in one snapshot.”
The reality is that it only takes one phone call or one upset person to ruin the show industry, Sterle adds. If exhibitors and shows aren’t careful, negative publicity will kill the show industry.
“I believe organizations like 4-H and FFA would be forced to pull their support if a negative publicity incident was too severe,” she says. “The benefits of showing livestock (including teaching discipline, responsibility, etc.) would go by the wayside. All the same benefits can be found in other places. If our only reason for showing is to use livestock to raise kids (even though I think it is one of the best ways), and the benefits of this activity can be found elsewhere, then one negative incident could definitely put an end to livestock shows. We are not only using livestock to teach these principles, we are providing a product to the consumer. We must never lose sight of that.”
Cobb says it’s important for the public to see youth treating animals right and being humane and ethical. But more importantly, he wants the public to see the quality of our young people.
“Nobody compares to these youth,” he says. “When I judge a major show, I always congratulate the agents, ag teachers, and families involved because that group of kids they are helping raise can rise above anyone. It puts chills down my spine. Yes, we have problems. You put a large group of people together and you have problems. Attach competition and money and the problems grow. The bottom line is that what we do is important and very valuable. It doesn’t need to be lost. If we have problems endangering it, then we need to fix those problems.”
