Taking Care of Our Animals
Approach
It is our moral and ethical obligation to treat animals humanely. This responsibility extends to our employees to make animal welfare a top priority, ensuring proper and humane animal care and handling. This section describes our commitment to our animals by sharing animal care procedures in barns, during transport, and while at our pork plants. We also share insight into our animal care training and auditing programs.
“Animal Care & Welfare are extremely important at HyLife and reflected in one of our Core Values, ‘Respecting Animals’.”
Lyle Loewen
Senior VP, Farm Division
Highlights
We converted 11,650 sow spaces to group housing in 2020. We have now converted 24% of the total sows in our system.
Passed all third-party audits performed by HAACP & PAACO certified auditors.
Passed all animal welfare audits performed by PAACO certified auditors.
Implemented a more comprehensive Load Density Standard Operating Procedure that includes strict adjustments for the hog weight and extreme temperatures.
Goals
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On Our Farms
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To convert all HyLife owned sow farms to group housing. Each year dedicated capital will be used to convert a percentage of our farms until 100% of HyLife owned sow farms are converted. KPI Continuous goal
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To continuously monitor and reduce antibiotic use by improving the overall health of all HyLife pigs. As a part of ensuring the health of our pigs is the top priority, we commit to the responsible use of antibiotics where needed. KPI Continuous goal
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We will ensure all employees are trained in animal handling, care, and welfare. We will assess our training protocols yearly and utilize technology to continuously improve our processes. KPI Continuous goal
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To continue to utilize our auditing program to drive continuous improvement with our animal care & welfare processes. These audits include but are not limited to the Common Swine Industry Audits (CSIA), North American Meat Institute audits (NAMI), Canadian Quality Assurance/Animal Care Assessment (CQA/ACA), Canadian Pork Excellence (CPE), Pork Quality Assurance Plus (PQA+), TQA and internal audits, which review processes surrounding biosecurity, animal handling, animal care, and animal welfare. This is a Continuous Goal. KPI Continuous goal
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In Transport
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To continuously improve our livestock transport fleet by testing and investing in new technology that improves animal care while in transport. KPI To introduce two lift deck trailers to the livestock transport fleet by the end of 2021
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