CHANGING PATTERNS OF LAMB DISTRIBUTION FROM FARM TO ABATTOIR

Transcription

1 CHANGING PAERNS OF LAMB DISRIBUION FROM FARM O ABAOIR Karen Murray Seale-Hayne Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Land Use, University of Plymouth, Newton Abbot, Devon. Introduction he main dis tri bu tion chan nels from farm to ab at toir in this coun try are di rect sales from farm, those via live stock auc tion mar kets and those via elec tronic auc tion sys tems. Ma jor changes with the live stock and meat pro duc ing in dus tries have pre cip i tated shifts in not only dis tri bu tion chan nels uti li sa tion, but also the patterns of livestock distribution within channels. his paper provides a synthesis of those factors ef - fect ing change and ex am ines the im pli ca tions for pat terns of live stock dis tri bu tion. he re sults of a sur vey of com plete jour neys from farm to ab at toir of over 18,000 lambs in all three channels are presented, together with the preliminary results of an experiment investigating the effect of journey type on animal welfare. hese two studies provide new information which challenges current understanding of the relationship between distribution channels and animal welfare. Livestock Marketing Channels Within the three prin ci pal mar ket ing chan nels, it was es ti mated that in 1995 over 64% of slaughterweight sheep were sold via live stock mar kets, 30% di rectly from farm to ab at toir and the remain der via elec tronic auc tions. His torically, the frag mented na ture of sheep pro duc tion and the large num ber of farms in volved (there are still over 80,000 pro duc ers) was the ma jor rea son for the dom i nance of the live stock mar kets. However, this sec tor has been in long term de cline: in 1940 there were 554 mar kets in Eng land and Wales, fall ing to 235 in 1993 and to 194 in For prime sheep there are cur rently 168 mar kets in Eng land and Wales. Whilst there are many fac tors af fect ing the de cline in the live stock mar ket sec tor, the emer gence of ver tical and horizontal linkages between producers, processors and retailers, resulting in increased sales di rect from farm to ab at toir, is un doubt edly im por tant. he de vel op ment of these link ages has been largely driven by the re quire ments of the Food Safety Act 1990, un der which re tail ers are obliged to dem on strate due dil i gence in their pro cure ment of live stock ne ces si tat ing full traceabiltiy and qual ity as sur ance from farm to con sumer. Electronic auction systems, introduced into this country in 1989, employ a variety of technological mech - a nisms to link buy ers and sell ers with bid ding con ducted on a dead weight ba sis or liveweight and grade as sess ment with premia and de duc tions on slaugh ter. here are cur rently four elec tronic auc tion- 23

2 Karen Murray eering organisations operating in the UK, but penetration has been slow and market share remains lim ited. he Slaughtering Industry Changes within the slaughtering industry have exerted an influence on distribution channel utilisation. Ab at toir num bers have fallen sub stan tially in re cent years and by April 1998, 448 plants re mained in Great Brit ain - less than 24% of the num ber in De spite this de cline in num bers, the in dus try re - mains over capacity and further concentration is expected. Legislative changes in 1995 exacerbated the formal polarisation of the industry. Abattoirs are either li - censed for Full hrough put 1, per mit ted to trade through out the EU or for Low hrough put 2, per mit ted to trade only lo cally. In 1996 over 86% of all sheep were slaugh tered in Full hrough put Ap proved plants and there are cur rently 208 such pre mises in Great Brit ain. With over 80,000 pro duc ers and over 16 mil lion slaugh ter sheep, this may have sig nif i cant im pli ca tions for the dis tri bu tion of live stock through out the coun try par tic u larly in light of the changes within the live stock mar ket sec tor and the in crease in di rect farm to ab at toir sales. Changes within the slaughtering industry are intricately associated with those occurring in the retail sec tor, which in turn have also con trib uted to shifts in dis tri bu tion chan nel uti li sa tion. he Retail Sector he multiple supermarkets have become increasingly dominant in the retail sector in recent years. In il - lus tra tion, house hold pur chases of meat from su per mar kets have risen from 55.3% of all pur chases to 69.9% since 1993 at the ex pense of all other out lets (a ble 1). able 1 Household Purchases of Meat by Volume (Percentage) by Source of Purchase Butchers Co-ops Supermarkets Independent Grocers Freezer Centres Others More than 1,000 ELUpa (European Livestock Unit). 1 ELU = 1 soliped, 1 adult bovine animal, 2 other bovine animals, 3 deer, 5 swine over 100kg liveweight, 7 other swine, 10 sheep or goats or 20 lambs or piglets under 15kg liveweight. 2 Less than 1,000 ELUpa. 24

3 Farm 9 Farm 8 Farm 7 Sales via Livestock Auction Markets Direct Sales and Sales via Electronic auctions rans-shipping Farm 6 Assembly Point/ Staging Post Livestock Auction Market Assembly Point/ Staging Post Livestock Auction Market Ori gin Farm Farm 2 Farm 3 Farm 4 Abattoir Farm 5 Figure 1. Distribution Patterns of Livestock Sold Direct from Farm to Slaughter, Via Electronic Auctions and Via Livestock Markets. he major supermarkets have developed long term preferred supplier relationships to ensure a greater continuity of supply, quality assurance and traceability. hese relationships involve both producers and abattoirs, thus reducing purchases via livestock markets and electronic auctions. he Welfare of Animals between Farm and Abattoir A num ber of stud ies have ex am ined the wel fare of an i mals sold di rect from farm to slaugh ter and those sold via live stock mar kets (for ex am ple, see: Ev ans, Sains, Corlett and Kil kenny (1987), Cockram and Lee (1991), Knowles, Maun der, Warriss and Jones (1994) and Jarvis, Cockram and McGilp (1995), amongst oth ers) but there is no ev i dence of any study re lat ing to live stock sold via elec tronic auc tion sys tems. here is a per cep tion that an i mals sold via live stock mar kets ex pe ri ence a greater num ber of han dling operations and more complex transportation processes than animals sold direct from farm to abattoir or via elec tronic auc tion sys tems, and that as a re sult wel fare is re duced. Much of the ev i dence in the lit er a- ture sug gests that this is the case. How ever, whilst it is im plicit that such jour neys must nec es sar ily involve a minimum of two periods of transport and their associated handling operations, no evidence has been found of investigations of actual journey structure from farm to slaughter in any channel. Jour ney struc tures range from one sin gle com po nent: a di rect an un in ter rupted jour ney from farm to abat toir to highly com plex pat terns (Fig ure 1). 25

4 Karen Murray An i mals sold di rect from farm and via elec tronic auc tion sys tems may ex pe ri ence sim i lar dis tri bu tion processes, including a single component journey. However, changes within all sectors of the industry sug gest that many live stock may ex pe ri ence multi com po nent jour neys in the trans fer from farm to ab attoir. his was in ves ti gated in a sur vey of such jour neys ex pe ri enced by slaughterweight lambs. Survey of Journey Structure from Farm to Abattoir A sur vey, con ducted be tween April and July 1997 iden ti fied com plete jour ney struc ture of 7,647 lambs sold di rect from farm to ab at toir, 8,678 sold via live stock mar kets and 2,068 sold via elec tronic auc tions. A to tal of 26 dif fer ent jour ney types were iden ti fied: 18 in di rect farm to ab at toir sales, 9 in sales via livestock mar kets and 13 within elec tronic auc tion sys tems. Me dian jour ney du ra tion and dis tance were less in di rect sales than in sales via live stock mar kets and those via elec tronic auc tions (a ble 2). How ever, the range of both pa ram e ters in all three chan nels was con sid er able and it is sug gested, there fore, that an i mal wel fare may also be highly vari able. able 2 Median ime and Distance from Farm to Abattoir Median ime Farm to Abattoir (hrs) Median Distance Farm to Abattoir (km) Farm to Abattoir Livestock Markets Electronic Auctions 1.08 a range a range a range a range a range a range a Values dif fer within col umns (P<0.001) In examination of the relationship between journey complexity and distance across all channels it was iden ti fied that as dis tance in creased jour neys be came more com plex (a ble 3 - Con tin gency ta ble chi-square, il lus trated in per cent age terms). his has par tic u larly im por tant im pli ca tions for the dis tri bu tion of lambs from farm to slaugh ter in light of the increasing concentration and rationalisation within both the livestock market and abattoir sectors. It is clear from the re sults of the above sur vey that there is no sim ple re la tion ship be tween live stock distri bu tion chan nels and jour ney na ture and struc ture. here fore, no as sur ance may be given that the wel fare of lambs sold via one chan nel is better than that of those sold via an other. he type of jour ney experienced may be more important than the distribution channel and, in the absence of published in - formation, an experiment was conducted to examine the effect of journey structure on the welfare of slaughterweight lambs. 26

5 able 3 he Relationship Between Journey Complexity and Distance from Farm to Slaughter. Percentage of All Lambs. <50km >50-100km > km > km >400km 1-3 pickups discrete journeys pickups discrete journeys Values in ital ics > would be ex pected by chance. Values in nor mal text < would be ex pected by chance. Ab so lute val ues: df = 12, 2 = , P< NB Due to round ing, val ues in the ta ble do not add up to 100. An Investigation of the Effects of Journey Structure on Animal Welfare A to tal of 135 lambs (Charollais X, liveweight 41.26kg (SD +3.05kg); 90 trans ported and 45 con trol) were used for three dif fer ent jour ney types which were rep li cated three times within a ran dom ised block design. he jour neys were: di rect and un in ter rupted trans fer from farm to ab at toir, a jour ney in volv ing three additional pickups en route and a jour ney in volv ing a pe riod of hold ing at a live stock mar ket. Distances trav elled were 262km, 138km and 181km, re spec tively and time from farm to ab at toir was 4hrs in each case. IGER Be hav iour Re corders were used to iden tify jaw move ments and ly ing and stand ing be hav iours of two con trol an i mals and two trans ported an i mals in each rep li cate. Con trol an i mals spent more time rumi nat ing than trans ported an i mals (P<0.0001, 0.96hrs and 0.14hrs +0.13, re spec tively), more time ly ing down dur ing the trans port pe riod (P<0.0001, 2.31hrs and 0.52hrs +0.56, re spec tively) and lost less liveweight (P<0.0001, 0.54kg and 0.86kg +0.44, re spec tively). Preliminary analyses of the effect of journey structure are summarised in able 4 and indicate that those on direct transfer experienced less liveweight loss and had lower ultimate carcass ph than animals on the two more com plex jour ney types(p< and P<0.005, re spec tively). here were no sig nif i cant differ ences in du ra tions of the be hav ioural mea sures be tween the three treat ments (P>0.05). It is clear from the re sults that trans por ta tion per se af fected the be hav iour and liveweight of the lambs. Whilst liveweight loss and ul ti mate ph were greater in an i mals on both the more com plex jour ney types than on direct transfer from farm to abattoir, durations of ruminating and lying behaviour was not simi - larly af fected. Conclusions he changes oc cur ring in the live stock and meat pro duc ing in dus tries are dy namic and in ter ac tive. he increasing concentration within the livestock market and abattoir sectors means that more animals are re quired to travel fur ther from farm to slaugh ter and it has been dem on strated that as dis tances in- 27

6 Karen Murray able 4 he Effect of Journey Structure on Ruminating, Lying, Liveweight Loss and Ultimate Carcass ph in Slaughterweight Lambs Direct ransfer Multiple Pickups Holding at Market Ruminating (hrs) c c c Lying (hrs) c c /08 c Liveweight loss (kg) a a,c a,c Ultimate ph b b,c b,c a = P<0.0001; b = P<0.005; c = non-significant. crease, jour neys be come more com plex. Pre lim i nary re sults of an ex per i ment ex am in ing the ef fect of jour ney struc ture sug gest that di rect and un in ter rupted trans fer from farm to ab at toir may be less del e- terious to the welfare of lambs than journeys involving three additional pickups en route and those involving holding at a livestock markets or other holding facility. However, no significant differences have been iden ti fied be tween these two jour ney types. It has been dem on strated that pat terns of lamb dis tri bu tion from farm to ab at toir are di verse in na ture and range in com plex ity in all three dis tri bu tion chan nels. It is, there fore, sug gested that ur gent pri or ity be given to fur ther stud ies in ves ti gat ing the effect of changing patterns of livestock distribution on animal welfare. References Cockram, M.S. and Lee, R.A. (1991). Some Preslaughter Fac tors Af fecting the Oc cur rence of Bruising in Sheep. Brit ish Vet er i nary Jour nal. 147, Ev ans, D.G., Sains, A.G., Corlett, I.K. and Kil kenny, J.B. (1987). A note on the ef fect of mar ket ing route on weight loss in lambs sent for slaugh ter. A ni ma l P ro d uc ti o n. 45, Jarvis, A.M., Cockram, M.S. and McGilp, I.M. (1995). Ef fect of source and dis tance trav elled on bruis ing and bl o od c h e mi s t ry a t s l a u g ht er. World Sheep and Wool Con gress Con fer ence Pro ceed ings. Royal Agricultural Society of England, hree Counties Agricultural Society, National Sheep Association. Malvern. Knowles,.G., Maun der, D.H.L. and Warriss, P.D. (1994). Fac tors af fect ing the in ci dence of bruis ing in lambs arriving at one slaughterhouse. he Vet er i nary Re cord. 134,