by Patricia Grotenhuis, Lifelong farmer and agricultural ambassador
A number of conversations between a father and his son about why they follow the specific farming practices they did led to the writing of a fable which stretches back to the times before animals were domesticated.
Bob Hunsberger, a pig farmer from Ontario, and his son Kyle, decided to write an explanation showing the evolution of farming practices which have lead us to where we are today. Writing the document has helped the Hunsbergers answer questions they are asked about animal agriculture and about the farming practices being used with pigs.
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Posted by FFC on June 17th, 2011 :: Filed under
Animal care,
Farm life,
Feeding the world,
Pigs,
Pork,
Sustainability of the family farmTags ::
animal care,
animal welfare,
Farmers,
pigs,
Pork,
sustainability
Vet tech turned pig farmer in the 2011 Faces of Farming calendar
By Patricia Grotenhuis
Pigs have captured the interest of Katherine Zurczak, a registered Veterinary Technician and city girl turned farmer.
Zurczak had her first encounter with pigs while studying to be a veterinary technician at Ridgetown College. She was quickly fascinated by her work with the animals, and after graduating in June of 2009, began working at Hog-Wild Farms Ltd. in Ontario.
The face of November in the 2011 calendar
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Posted by FFC on March 8th, 2011 :: Filed under
Animal care,
animal handling,
Education and public awareness,
Faces of Farming,
Family vs factory farming,
Farm life,
Misconceptions,
Pigs,
PorkTags ::
agriculture,
animal care,
Farmers,
pigs,
Pork
Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator, 2008.06.07
I left the Great Lakes packing plant on May 12 with four boxes of meat piled onto the back seat of my car. Piggy — my pig, the pig I had helped raise and care for — was packed inside those boxes.
Six months of his life, six months of my life, all reduced to four cardboard boxes on my back seat.
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Posted by FFC on July 23rd, 2009 :: Filed under
Canada,
Consumers,
Farm life,
PorkTags ::
Consumers,
Farmers,
Media,
Ontario,
pigs,
Pork
Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator, 2008.06.06
The use of battery-powered electric prods to get hogs moving is a controversial animal welfare issue.
The prod is poked into the back or rump of the pig and with a push of a button, a flash of electric current jumps between two contacts. It’s enough to elicit a loud squeal in some pigs.
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Posted by FFC on July 23rd, 2009 :: Filed under
Meat/slaughter plants,
Pork,
TransportationTags ::
animal welfare,
economics,
labeling,
meat,
Ontario,
pigs,
Pork
Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator,2008.06.06
It’s Friday, May 9. I didn’t need my alarm clock this morning. I was wide awake by 4 a.m.
I admit that I was a little apprehensive. This is Piggy’s last day. This morning, he’s being shipped from the Littlejohns’ farm in the hamlet of Glen Morris to Great Lakes Specialty Meats, a small packing plant in Mitchell, about half an hour north of London.
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Posted by FFC on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under
Farm life,
Meat/slaughter plants,
Pork,
TransportationTags ::
Farmers,
meat,
pigs,
Pork,
slaughter,
Transportation
Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator, 2008.06.04
I’m playing a word game with Temple Grandin. It’s fascinating to hear her describe how her brain works.
Temple Grandin is a professor of livestock behaviour at Colorado State University. She also happens to be autistic.
You could make the case that she’s the world’s most highly functioning autistic person and I wouldn’t argue with that.
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Posted by FFC on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under
Education and public awareness,
Family vs factory farming,
Farm life,
Housing,
PorkTags ::
animal welfare,
beef,
livestock,
meat,
pigs,
Pork,
slaughter
Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator, 2008.05.28
Six months, 250 pounds. That’s Piggy’s destiny in life.01 At first, he’ll double his weight in a few days, then it will double in a week, then every couple of weeks, then every month. It’s incredible, isn’t it, to think that a barnyard animal is capable of growing so large, so quickly.
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Posted by FFC on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under
Canada,
Education and public awareness,
Farm life,
PorkTags ::
animal welfare,
artificial insemination,
Farmers,
meat,
Ontario,
pigs,
Pork,
Research
Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator, 2008.05.27
It’s 6:30 on a Sunday morning and daylight hasn’t yet cracked the horizon as I head west along Governor’s Road on the far side of Lynden. I drive for miles without passing another car, but almost every barn I pass is already lit.
No one has said it better than John Kenneth Galbraith, the renowned economist and maybe the most famous graduate of the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph.
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Posted by FFC on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under
Canada,
Farm life,
PorkTags ::
Canada,
Farmers,
pigs,
Pork
BY TOBI COHEN, OTTAWA SUN, 2003.06.22
Pulling up to Luc and Louise Secours’ Bainsville farm one would never guess it was home to as many as 6,000 piglets at any given time.
It’s located on a large chunk of property a kilometre or so east of their
family farm home which stands perched atop a small hill next door to their chicken coop along Concession 2 in tiny South Glengarry town.
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Posted by FFC on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under
Animal health,
Consumers,
Family vs factory farming,
Housing,
Innovation and technology,
Pork,
RegulationsTags ::
activists,
agriculture,
Consumers,
environment,
Farmers,
misconceptions,
Ontario,
pigs,
Pork
Vancouver Sun, 2005.08.19, Letter to the Editor
Re: Spin, not reform: The Canadian livestock industry goes for public
relations, Issues & Ideas, Aug. 18
On behalf of Canadian hog producers, I take great exception to Stephanie Brown and John Youngman’s comments regarding our industry’s efforts in animal care.
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Posted by FFC on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under
Letters to the Editor,
PorkTags ::
animal care,
Canada,
Farmers,
pigs,
Pork
