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Iowa producer not ready to dump stalls

The pork industry’s efforts to preserve the option of sow gestation stalls for pork producers took a hit earlier this month when Smithfield Foods announced it wanted its growers to convert from stalls to group housing.

And while Tyson says it hasn’t taken a position on gestation stalls, the company is urging producers to “consider making space improvements” when redesigning or building new gestation barns.

Protivin, Iowa pork producer Mark Meirick and his partners use gestation stalls in their 2,500 head sow unit, which was built in 1998.  And Meirick says they’ll continue to use stalls “for the time being”.

“It’s a cost factor to switch to anything different—and I think we do a really good job,” Meirick says.  “Our sows and all of our hogs are in real good condition.  We take good care of them.

“I think we’ll make a decision to change, maybe down the road, but right now we’re real comfortable with where we are.  And our numbers that we have—our production numbers—show we’re doing a good job.”

Meirick says it’s frustrating to have “outside” forces telling him what’s best for his animals.

“It’s very frustrating, because we think as the owners of the animals, and as producers, we make the best decisions—between ourselves and our veterinarians, we do what’s best for the animals every day,” he says, “and to have someone outside to come in and dictate what we need to do, I think that’s wrong.

“I think the producers are the ones that should decide what’s best for the animals.”

Meirick says they market their finished pigs to Hormel in Austin, Minnesota.  Hormel has announced plans to phase out the use of gestation stalls in its company-owned facilities by 2017, but has not expanded that requirement to include its suppliers.

AUDIO: Mark Meirick (3:55 MP3)

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  Good for Protivin and all the other farmers who stand firm for GOOD ANIMAL HUSBANDRY PRACTICES.

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  With these radicals it is just as much if you “use” any animal for anything in helping humans, they are against it. I am still looking for a pair of wool socks and a fur hat to wear out to feed the cattle in this weather! The general population does not realize just how much the radical vegan animal rights movement has cost each state in the interference in the production of any animal products – California in the cattle industry – 55 Billion Dollars gone! Multiply that times 50. No matter how much they try it will be difficult for people to return to no meat eating, no lifesaving science or to have a purebred dog at your side, go to a circus, rodeo and the list goes on, living on the land as the Indians did in the 1600s. So while this movement may appear to be good for some animals, it is certainly is not geared toward caring about humans.

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