Animal advocates certify USDA center

Thursday, December 20, 2012

— The goats and sheep raised at the Dale Bumpers Small Farm Research Center in Booneville are now certified by the group Animal Welfare Approved, the first time the organization has given its seal to a federal facility.

The research center is part of the U.S. Department of Agriulture’s Agricultural Research Service. Its mission is to develop scientific principles and technologies to make small-scale farms sustainable and more profitable.

“Not only is this unusual, it’s unique,” Andrew Gunther, program director at Animal Welfare Approved, said of the center’s certification.

Virginia-based Animal Welfare Approved is a third-party auditor that monitors animals raised onfamily farms. The voluntary standards require that animals be raised outdoors in pastures or rangeland and be allowed to live as naturally as possible. Its standards are the most stringent in the U.S., according to the organization.

Animal Welfare Approved, a nonprofit formed by the Animal Welfare Institute, an animal-welfare group, audits participating farms annually. It was founded in 2006 in response to growing consumer interest in how farm animals are raised and how food is produced, according to its website. It has certified approximately 1,500 farms in 44 states. There are six certified farms in Arkansas, including the research center.

The certification is for the research center’s breeder and feeder goats. While the research operation doesn’t raise animals for sale as part of its mission, goats and sheep used in the research eventually are sold through an auction that meets the center’s standards.

Yvonne Thaxton, a professor and director of the Center for Food Animal Wellbeing at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, said any move toward improving the wellbeing of agricultural animals during the sale process is positive.

The UA well-being centeropened in 2011 and seeks to improve animal health and handling, food safety and productivity. The center is affiliated with the UA Division of Agriculture’s animal science and poultry departments, as well as the university-housed National Agricultural Law Center.

Gunther said it was a good sign that the Bumpers research center sought certification from Animal Welfare Approved, because it shows that the USDA is interested in all aspects of farming, including both large- and smallscale operations.

“We all can’t be big ranchers,” he said.

Joan Burke, an animal scientist at the Bumpers center who directs the goat and sheep programs, said the center routinely uses good practices when dealing with its animals, so it made sense to apply for the animal-welfare certification.

“In this day and age it’s an important issue,” she said. “People are concerned about how animals are treated.”

In April, Burger King said all of its eggs and pork will come from cage-free chickens and pigs by 2017. Earlier in the year, McDonald’s and Wendy’s asked pork suppliers about their plans to quit using hog-gestation crates. The crates are confined spaces that allow minimum movement for breeding pigs. Also this year, Smithfield Foods Inc. and Hormel Foods Corp.committed to ending the use of gestation crates by 2017.

In October, Springdalebased Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat producer, began a program called Farm-Check to audit the operations of its suppliers to ensure that animals destined for its plants are treated humanely. The company said consumers want to know that the food they buy is produced in a responsible manner.

Tyson is under pressure from the Humane Society of the United States to stop allowing its suppliers to use gestation crates. The company has said its suppliers use a mix of group pens and gestation crates, and both methods are humane if managed properly.

Burke, at the Bumpers center, said the focus of the research center is smaller farmers who are key providers of locally produced food.

She said sheep and goats fit well into small farm operations and are particularly attractive to farmers just starting out as well as older or semiretired farmers, because the animals require less attention than cattle. Sheep and goats provide wool, meat and milk.

The center, named for the former Democratic governor and senator from Arkansas, has 170 Katahdin sheep and 40 Spanish or kiko meat goats that roam about 100 acres. There also are about 200 head of cattle, and Burke said thecenter is considering seeking certification for them in the future. Raising cattle is a far larger industry in Arkansas than sheep or goats.

Burke said a primary aspect of her research deals with mitigation of internal parasites in sheep and goats, because the chemicals available to kill them simply aren’t effective.

Most of that research is done in the spring and summer. For the past two years, usually in the fall, surplus goats and sheep are sold at an auction the center holds at the South Logan County Fairgrounds.

The animals are individually numbered and featured in a sale catalog noting their background and attributes.

Burke said the majority of the animals sold, about 120 sheep and goats last year, are destined to be breeding stock. Farmers from Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri routinely attend the auction, she said.

Business, Pages 25 on 12/20/2012