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What Does
Temple Grandin Think about FAST?
When FARMWELD
first launched FAST™,
several people commented: I wonder
what Dr. Temple Grandin would think
of a system like this?
Well, wait
no longer. “I think it looks
really good,” says the well-known
guru of livestock handling after reviewing
the FAST literature. Grandin,
an associate professor at Colorado
State University, went on to say that
since FAST teaches pigs to
walk single file, they will be calmer
during transport and handling at the
slaughter plant. She explains that
pigs are usually required to walk
single file in plant staging areas
that lead to the stunning floor. Prior
experience walking single file is
“super good” in reducing
stress and maintaining meat quality,
according to Grandin.
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.
“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.
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