If any district farmers thought the new regulations meant they no longer need be concerned about building an abattoir, they were disappointed last Thursday evening (May 15).
About 60 farmers showed up at the Millennium Hall in Stratton to take in the “Non-emergency on-farm slaughter” presentation co-ordinated by half-a-dozen Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs employees flown in for the occasion.
The new regulations make it possible, although not easy, for farmers to slaughter cattle under 30 months of age and hogs on their farm, in the presence of a certified examiner, and have the meat processed at a provincially-licensed meat plant.
Here in Rainy River District, Sunrise Meat and Sausage in Barwick is the only approved facility.
OMAFRA will be approving each kill. Prior to slaughter day, the producer must contact the meat plant, which then must get approval from an OMAFRA regional veterinarian to receive carcasses slaughtered on-farm on the selected date.
News that the nearest regional veterinarian is in Lindsay, Ont., near Peterborough, was met with gales of laughter from the audience.
“But he is in the north quite frequently,” offered Dr. Robert Hayes, manager of veterinary inspection and audit, who also suggested the province may be getting another regional vet.
The provisions do not accommodate a farming family that lives in town nor a farmer having animals custom fed. They also do not allow a farming partner who lives on another farm to take meat home.
Each package must be marked “producer owned-not for sale,” measuring at least 1.25 cm in height, and from the meat plant must be returned to the producer.
It must be consumed on the farm where it was raised—and only by the producer and their immediate family.
But when pressed on the issue of it being consumed only on the farm, OMAFRA communications branch spokesperson Brent Ross stated, “No one is going to be going into the school and looking into your kid’s lunch box with a flashlight.”
Patrick Thornton, legislative policy analyst, indicated the consultation process from which the new regulations grew was conducted in February, 2005.
“I’m not certain where the sessions were, but there were producers, representatives from Ontario cattlemen and Ontario pork, the meat processing industry, and public health units—anybody who had a role or an interest,” he explained.
“If there was one here, I didn’t know about it,” interjected Emo cattle producer Kim Jo Bliss.
“If there was one in this area?. . . I can’t remember at this point. . . .” Thornton replied.
“Well, I probably do remember and there wasn’t,” Bliss retorted.
“In 2005? . . . February, 2005. . . . If you remember the whole month . . . that there was nothing here for that . . . okay,” Thornton conceded.
The course to become a certified examiner likely will be offered in Guelph in June and is free, although OMAFRA will not be paying for travel and accommodation.
“Anybody in this room can become certified as an examiner, but I would suggest that if you have no butchering skills, you won’t pass our exam,” Dr. Hayes warned.
Anyone who was not in the room likely will not be applying to take the course. The deadline for receipt of applications is May 23.
That deadline was necessary, Dr. Hayes explained, so that examiners would be in place in time for the fall slaughter.
The fall slaughter period will be from Sept. 15-Dec. 31 this year. Next year, it will begin on Sept. 1 and run to the end of the year.
The spring slaughter period will be throughout the month of March.
“We know the timelines are tight . . . that’s unfortunate,” Ross stated apologetically.
Dr. Hayes said later that OMAFRA employees weren’t even allowed to talk about these new regulations until the middle of April.
During the consultations, Ontario cattlemen and Ontario Pork had asked for a 16-week slaughter period, with the spring season being shorter. It needed to be during periods when it wasn’t too hot.
Local producers are concerned the 16-week period would be difficult here because the only approved meat plant is booked solid in the fall.
“If it was a little longer in the spring, it would be more of a benefit [to our business] because it would spread the work out,” suggested Paul Peters, co-owner of Sunrise Meat and Sausage, who was not 100 percent certain if he would take the certified examiner course.
“The aging is going to be a little bit tricky,” he added.
Determining the age of cattle must be done by examining the insicor teeth. If the teeth indicate a 30-month or older animal, it is not eligible for on-farm slaughter.
Peters suggested that if there was any doubt, the examiner would want to check the teeth before the animal is slaughtered.
“Most of the animals are in a pen, but they aren’t tied up,” he noted.
He suggested that perhaps it would be best if the abattoir was doing the slaughtering.
Abattoir board chairman Steve Loshaw did not want to speculate on how the new rules would affect business for the abattoir. But since it is only for producers’ on-farm consumption, he didn’t see that it would be a large number.
Ross summed up the Stratton meeting by saying, “You can tell that this is important to people. We had a much stronger showing here than at any other session and we are very glad to see that.”
When the history of the area, with regard to the meat crisis in the fall of 2006 and ongoing efforts to build an abattoir, was mentioned, Dr. Hayes suggested that was why they were here.
“You have one single licensed meat plant in the area and we are hoping that it will work for producers,” he said.
“You definitely need an abattoir. If the producer wants to sell meat, he has to take it to an abattoir,” Dr. Hayes stressed.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
