The Rural Voice, 2004-05, Page 57PERTH 'Mk
County Pork Producers NEWSLETTER
Pat Louwagie, President
519-393-6424
• The Rural Voice is provided to Perth
County Pork Producers by the PCPPA
' We have just started washing out
our barn, it takes about 20 minutes
per pen and with 20 pens per room
you're by yourself for hours at a
time. With my ear plugs in due to the
noise of the pressure washer. 1 am
almost in a world by myself. So with
that in mind I have a lot of time to
ponder, write and rewrite this article
in my head. The problem is to get
those ideas out of the barn and onto a
piece of paper, on time. and still have
a good article to read.
The Perth County Pork Producers
were recently at the Garden Festival
in Stratford where we served.
obviously, pork samples. Those of us
who worked. received an email
thanking us for volunteering with a
note that stated PORK was the
favorite choice of the patrons!!
Congratulations! You all looked great
too.
Thinking about this while I was
washing. I looked down at myself --
and I'll remind you here again that I
am washing pens in a hog finishing
barn so 1 am wet and partially
covered in splatter. All I could think
was I wonder what people would
have said if I have shown up looking
like this. 1 can guarantee that positive
words about our appearance would
not have been said and I bet no one
would have complimented us on the
pork because no one would have
come near to sample it.
A soft drink commercial jumped
to mind: "Image is nothing, thirst is
everything" — at least 1 think that's
what it is but to be truthful I believe
that in today's world this commercial
is wrong, I believe it should be image
is everything.
On that thought the hogs shipped
to market recently have come under
closer observation. For us, we no
longer ship animals with noticeable
joint swelling or stiffness in the legs,
as well as animals that have
prolapsed. The explanation we have
received has two points.
The packing plants no longer want
the extra work involved with
Image is everything
removing the potentially suspect area.
Individuals have also been waiting
outside receiving bays to photograph
suspect animals, raising quality and
animal welfare issues.
The extra work — okay. I can see
that. We all want to reduce
unnecessary extra work and I have no
idea what is involved but 1 am sure
it's not just as simple as a worker
removing the suspect area on the
processing line.
The other is the condition of the
animal being received. How do you
argue that animals being received are
of good quality when there are
pictures of questionable animals
being transferred into the processing
plant? Although a picture cannot tell
the quality of an animal. it can
generate protests based on a
perceived problem of quality.
If we step back and look at the
current trend in our society. we see
this almost unrealistic push for
"perfection". We have extreme
makeover shows to achieve beauty;
we have a variety of commercials and
TV shows portraying what is
supposed to be idtal image of body
shapes and appearance. In an
agricultural context. do we not look
at furrows. crop rows and rate
them according to how straight they
are?
What about our farms themselves.
clean, well -kept farm vs. a poorly
maintained farm? What about the
equipment we use: brand new. older
but well maintained. tractor parked
on a barn bank to get that rolling
start. Have we not come to a point
where we expect things to look a
certain way and what happens when
they don't? If that animal coming off
the truck does not look perfect. then it
must not be. The key word to the last
statement is look.
The end result to those of us in
agriculture is "image is everything"
especially in the pork industry. It
seems sometimes that we are under
continuous scrutiny by special
interest groups. all forms of media.
ready to report and exploit
occurrences that are the exception.
but sometimes leaving the impression
that this is the norm for the industry.
As I stated earlier. in today's
world image seems to be everything
and we as pork producers must make
sure we present the image we want
everyone to see: Quality People
producing Quality Pork.
— Submitted by
Bert J. Vorstenbosch Jr.
PERTH COUNTY PORK PRODUCERS'
PORK PRODUCTS
• Smoked Pork Chops • Fresh Pork Chops
• Stuffed Loin Chops • Smoked Sausage
• Smoked Cheddar Sausage • Bacon Burgers
• Teriyaki Pork Steaks • Vittorio's BBQ Sauce
AVAILABLE FROM
Steve Hulshof (Kinkora) 348-8167
Walter Bosch (Monkton) 356-9000
Ted Keller (Mitchell) 348-9836
MAY 2004 53