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According to Australian Pork Limited Annual Report 2012-2013, industry’s voluntary sow stall phase out initiative continues to attract the attention of the community, consumers, government and regulators in a positive sense.
Towards the end of last year, Annual Industry Survey (AIS) told that more than half of pigs are produced on farms which do not use sow stalls. APL are hopeful that this figure will increase towards the end of this year to become closer to 65 per cent or nearly two thirds of industry.
APL have recently made an optional module of the Australian Pork Industry Quality assurance system - APIQü® - available for meeting the standard for being sow stall free, giving more integrity to product claims being made through the chain. There has been significant progress by the industry towards becoming gestation stall free by 2017. The 2012 Annual Industry Survey shows that over half of the Australian pork industry is gestation stall free. While there are increasing reports internationally of other pig-producing countries also committing to transition to gestation stall free, Australian producers are one of a very select few that will not use gestation stalls; other countries’ commitments will still see them keeping sows in gestation stalls for at least 28 days.
March 2014/ Australian Pork/ Australia.
http://australianpork.com.au
