FROM THE CORRAL Fixing fatigue By Dr. Temple Grandin meatpoultry@sosland.com T he industry needs to fix problems with downed, fatigued marketweight pigs. It is a problem that can be solved and the corrections must be made at the farms. The pork packing plants have greatly improved their handling practices over the last three years. Unfortunately, some plants still have very high numbers of fatigued pigs that cannot walk to the stunner. Fortunately, I have been in plants where there used to be high numbers of fatigued pigs and they have been greatly reduced. Unfortunately, I have also been to another plant where fatigue has become worse. This plant had excellent handling. All the plants I observed were processing large pigs with weights of 250 lbs. to 275 lbs. I am sick and tired of talking about fatigued pigs. We need to get rid of them and I have seen it done. The problem must be corrected at the farm. There are six basic causes of fatigued or downer pigs that are not able to walk to the stunner: Injured pigs - Injured market pigs with a broken leg or other injury are not a major cause of the fatigued pigs that I have observed. Rough handling - All the plants had excellent handling both in the plant and during truck unloading. Rough handling and excessive electric prod use can increase downers. The plants I observed moved all the pigs carefully and quietly. Overloading trucks - Research conducted by Matt Ritter at the Univ. of Illinois indicates even slight overloading of trucks will increase the percentage of downer and dead pigs. Some producers slightly overload trucks because they financially come out ahead on freight, even though the percentage of downer and dead pigs is increased. However, truck overloading was not the major cause of the downer problems that I saw corrected at two plants. Antimicrobial SANITARY SERIES DRUM MOTORS Safe, Reliable and Cost Efficient Power that Keeps Your Food Processing Business Running r ? i /rover/?6 72 I MEAT&POULTRY I August 2009 I "MWON www.MEATPOULTRY.com ahttp://www.MEATPOULTRY.com