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| I think I will add my 2 cents after thinking about the video for a few days, from my point of view as a producer that has g crates right now,
As for the the video:
Was what was shown true and did happen, answer is yes
Were "some" of the practices used in the video reflect the industry, answer is yes
Did the video poorly display proper practices and made them look bad, when in reality they are the best, answer is yes
Does the company in the video have problem with labour and training, answer is yes
Did the news channel do poor job explaining why those practices were used answer is yes.
Was there a motive behind the story answer is yes
Does this video reflect the entire industry, answer is obviously no
So, since we are now in damage control, can we as an industry stop hiding from the issues that consumer wonder about and work on showing the public the truth of family farm pork production and be proactive on showing what we are trying to improve things in the future with good PR, I don't mean give up on G crates and farrowing stalls but show people we care about improving animal welfare, through research and such and why we do things.
Honestly we need to stop being defensive about this and stop hiding from what is really reality, because honestly most consumers are uneducated and interested in genuinely learning about what happens in a modern hog barn but when you keep trying to hide reality, the consumer losses all creditability in the producer and starts believing what the radicals think because they seem to be uncovering things before the producer does and they put their twist to it, after all the motive of the video was to shock people.
Ag needs to listen to the customer, educate them instead, via the someway animal right people do it (social media, news stories, docs, ads) and stop saying "well u know nothing about animals, so you have no opinion as a city person" farmers should be less reactive and educate the public and tell them what they are working on in the future to continue to produce cheap pork efficiently and for better animal welfare, like talking about how we are finding and researching alternatives for euthanization, stalls and castration ext...
Reality is G crates are on there way out, we have lost that battle because we have been stubborn and defensive about it, we could of found compromises to keep it and have loose housing as a niche a market but that hope has been lost. IMO the future of sow housing lays in race track (nedap velos style) ESF sow housing but only when building a new setup.
Is there anything wrong with g crates with proper management probably not.
But I think there is better systems out there that produce better results then crates with less labour and increased productivity that are ready for the future esp. when building a new barn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSDXdVMwoi4
My 2 cents like it or not.
Edited by agricon 12/11/2012 11:10
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Another blow to livestock farmers,
