What Does Temple Grandin Think about FAST?

			Dr. Temple Grandin

When FARMWELD first launched FAST™, several people commented: I wonder what Dr. Temple Grandin would think of a system like this?

Grandin also emphasizes that the amount of time barn workers spend inside of the pigs’ pens greatly impacts stress levels at slaughter plants. “It is very important for pigs to experience people walking amongst them long before they hit the plant,” she says. “Pigs are visual-thinkers. They can differentiate between people inside the pen or in the alleyway.” She says she’s noticed different reactions in pigs from a single integrator with multiple grower sites. “I could immediately tell which growers walked the pens and which didn’t,” she says.

FAST buildings are designed with large pens and minimum gating. Even alleys are optional. This design may entice workers to spend more time in pens. (See related article.)

“I want people walking the pens,” says Grandin. “If the sorting device will enhance that, that’s excellent.”

Housing pigs in large groups has other advantages, according to Grandin. “I’ve noticed in packing plants that when you put 200 pigs in a pen, there’s hardly any fighting. There may be a few little skirmishes but then they all settle down and go to sleep. If there are a few pigs that don’t like each other, they can get away from each other,” she says.

Grandin has one word of caution regarding feed withdrawal times. Grandin says you must take into account time for travel, loading, unloading and waiting at the plant when deciding when to turn off feeders. Turning feeders off 12 hours before pigs leave the farm is probably “ideal,” she says. That allows time for loading, a several hour trip to the plant, time for unloading at the plant and time for rest at the plant before processing. Producers should take into account the extra time spent if they are selling pigs through buying stations.

“If you turn off the feeders 24 hours before you ship, you may end up with pigs off feed for 30 hours or more,” says Grandin, who recommends pigs be off feed for a total of 16 hours – and definitely no more than 24 hours – prior to stunning. “You don’t want them to fast so long that they get carcass shrink,” she says.