Two sides to pork industry
There is debate about whether there are significant animal welfare advantages to choosing to farm pigs outdoors but the consumer sees it as important, writes Pat Deavoll.
In 2009, a campaign, led by animal rights lobby group Safe and featuring comedian and expork industry spokesman Mike King catapulted pig welfare firmly into the national psyche. Grim images of sows incarcerated in metal farrowing or birthing crates with their piglets were plastered across the media. The pigs were kept in dank, dark barns. They were filthy, their stalls were filthy, their babies were filthy.
The reasoning behind the crates, said defensive pig farmers, was to stop sows trampling their piglets. The piglets’ needs outweighed those of the mother. But the farmer-voice was drowned out by public outcry and pork sales plummeted. Such was the controversy that 18 months later, legislation was passed to phase out the crates.
Out on the south bank of the Hurunui River, close to the small town of Hawarden, it’s a different story. Hundreds of large pale pigs snuffle and roam around small paddocks ringed by trees. Their piglets trot after them. There are little huts for shelter – one per family – and lots of good spring grass. And the sound of the river. An air of peace and calm pervades. This is Patoa Farm, New Zealand’s largest free-farm piggery.
Choosing to farm pigs outdoors was a deliberate decision by owners Steve and Josie Sterne.
‘‘Even 25 years ago, when we bought the property, we could see that public sentiment was drifting towards outdoor farming of pigs. It’s not the most efficient way to farm pigs and it’s debatable whether there are significant animal welfare advantages but the consumer sees it as important,’’ Steve Sterne says.
Sows are kept in 3.5 hectare paddocks with huts. They are provided with plenty of shade and a wallow, Sterne says. When the sows farrow they are moved into smaller paddocks where they can choose a hut to raise their family. Piglets stay with their mother for 3.5 weeks and are then weaned into straw-based barns for fattening. They are ‘‘harvested’’ at 17 to 22 weeks, or when they reach a marketable weight.
‘‘We feel a lot more comfortable about having sows running around outdoors and we always believed there would be a time when consumers would become more and more interested in how their pork was raised and reared. When we started out that was not a very strong sentiment at all,’’ Sterne says.
Back on the dark side, Safe believes the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) continues to turn a blind eye to the plight of pigs farmed indoors and is letting some farms slip between the cracks of the legislation.
In July, it accused MPI of giving a green light to a Timaru pig farm exposed for breaking the law.
Footage obtained by Farmwatch investigators showed the farm was keeping pigs in illegal sow stalls as well as in old-style farrowing crates much too small to accommodate the large animals.
Safe spokesman Hans Kriek said at the time: ‘‘When MPI visited the property and reportedly found two pregnant pigs in sow stalls, they claimed they didn’t breach animal welfare legislation and just asked the farmer to move the pigs. MPI ignored the distress the sows were in.
‘‘If the pork industry thinks it’s acceptable for this farmer to break the law by using sow stalls it certainly will make New Zealanders question whether any other of NZ Pork’s Pigcare-accredited farms are also keeping pigs in cruel and illegal conditions. Law-breaking like this not only harms the animal, it is also a bad look for our international reputation.’’
About 13,000 sows are farmed outdoors in New Zealand and this reflected the emphasis on and interest in animal welfare policy, said the editor of Whole Hog magazine, John Stark.
‘‘The size of the commercial sow herd is estimated to be about 28,000 animals and these are divided roughly 50:50 between outdoor and indoor breeding units. There are around 100 commercial pig farms in the country.
‘‘The most recent estimate of annual pig kill was 662,000 animals. About 50 per cent of pork consumed in New Zealand is imported, and local pork producers have no ability to compete on price.’’
‘‘The reason for this is because pig-feed in New Zealand costs almost twice as much as in North America and represents 60 per cent of a pig farmers’ total costs.’’
He said the New Zealand producers’ organisation, Nzpork, was acutely aware that lower-priced pork imports did not have to meet the same welfare standards as domestic producers and that this was a strategic threat to them.
For that reason, in 2010, Nzpork implemented a welfare audit of the entire industry called Pigcare, which was a requirement to allow locally produced pork to be labelled as, ‘‘100 per cent NZ pork, ham or bacon’’.
Pig meat imports by New Zealand were on an upward trend, Stark said, and per capita consumption was similarly growing. New Zealand’s pig farmers were threatened with extinction by new, foreign sources of competition.
‘‘The country’s location does, however, offer some hope to the beleaguered domestic industry, as it doesn’t make it easy for overseas suppliers of fresh, chilled product. Logistics will deter imports of fresh pork, as does the small population, which probably could not sustain demand for high volumes of imported fresh/chilled cuts anyway.’’
‘‘The public need to know there are good things going on in the pork industry.’’ Steve Sterne, of Patoa Farm
After an extensive search, the Sternes bought Patoa Farm in 1998 in conjunction with Jens and Anne Ravn, a partnership that continued until 2013. It met their checklist for a property with light, free-draining soil isolated from other pig farms and neighbours.
‘‘Initially we thought it would be a mixed farm with pigs, beef and crops, but we always wanted a 1000-sow operation to be competitive on the world stage. More pig meat is produced and eaten in the world than any other meat. So to be competitive you have to be good at your game,’’ Sterne said.
The system Patoa Farm uses is called ‘‘free farm’’. The sows are outdoors and the piglets are born outdoors in huts.
After weaning the progeny is taken into large straw-based barns and raised. So it doesn’t actually meet the free-range definition, which means that everything has to stay outside all the time.
‘‘There are very few farmers who grow free range because it is almost impossible to be economic. And, environmentally it’s not very sustainable either. That’s the reason it’s not done on a commercial scale very often,’’ he said.
In 2015, the Sternes opened their farm to the public. Four hundred people visited, even though biosecurity and disease risk meant none could actually set foot on the property – only view from the window of the bus.
It was a good thing to open the farm to the public, Sterne says.
‘‘The public needs to know there are good things going on in the pork industry.’’