In 2006, Brian Martin was part owner of a 60,000-sow system from Oklahoma to the East Coast. He built a 10,000-sow, loose housing farm with electronic sow feeders in Columbia, N.C., which was unique and new at the time. In 2010, they built a similar farm in Indiana.
“When Prop 12 came around, our farm was around 10 years old and it was a good time to refresh it,” Martin shared during the Midwest Pork Conference in a panel discussion with Jamee Eggers, chief operating officer at Cloverleaf Animal Welfare Systems and Brigitte Mason, veterinarian with Country View Family Farms. “Part of our decision to do Prop 12 was that we were already at 20 square feet per sow, so going to 24 square feet was pretty easy.”
In 2022, Martin Family Farms became Prop 12 compliant. He said managing a Prop 12 barn is certainly more labor intensive. However, he sees it as an opportunity to manage sows even better. His team is more focused on what falls out, why they fall out and then acting on it, he says.
“We continue to work at it, but we see that focus on condition, being fast to catch the girl that needs to get out of the pen, and the intensity of managing a not-fit list. Those things show themselves big and fast,” Martin says.
Although he admits the first Prop 12 farm audit was the toughest, he said the process is not about identifying failure.
“It’s a process to work on getting everyone compliant,” Martin says.
For Country View Family Farms, one of the advantages of becoming Prop 12 compliant was that it made those farms more organized, Mason adds.
“It really did help us clean up and sharpen our pencils on scheduling and understanding tasks, how long they take, what it takes to do them,” Mason says.
Mason, Eggers and Martin shared Prop 12 lessons learned this year.
1. Don’t overlook the fine print.
“The devil is truly in the details of the definitions that are written into the law,” says Eggers. Understand the audit trail, be knowledgeable about what terms mean and don’t take it for granted that your understanding of a word is enough. Read and make sure you are understanding terms as California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) specify. Eggers says CDFA is incredibly helpful and willing to work with producers to answer questions they may have.
2. Reach out for help when you’re getting started.
“Know the footprint of barn and what you are looking to do from a labor perspective,” Mason says.
Many companies will help producers design a Prop 12 compliant barn, she says. Be aware that there are more labor-intensive plans and some less labor-intensive plans, depending on what you are looking for. Do you want to minimize or increase your labor force? Barn plans will impact your ability to do this.
3. Engage farm leadership in the planning process.
“We sat down with the team to make sure that they understood the Prop 12 requirements,” Mason says. “But we also then said, ‘OK, what are the most important practices to us on farm that we want to make sure that we use time for?’”
4. Recordkeeping is critically important. Keep records for at least two years. Eggers says producers must have sufficient detail to document covered animals confined in compliance, including purchase sales, placement and movement records.
“Records can be paper, electronic or a combination of both,” Eggers says. “There’s not a requirement within the law about either. You have flexibility as producers to meet the record keeping requirement in a fashion that works for your farm.”
But she does point out that certifying agents and CDFA ask that however you do it, that you are consistent.
5. Avoid the most common non-conformances, including improper space allotments, leaving animals in non-compliant treatment enclosures until farrowing and lack of complete documentation, Eggers says.
“Gilts and sows are typically held at different densities,” she adds. “Prop 12 does not allow for different ages or sizes – all animals must meet the space standards.”
6. Develop a positive working relationship with your auditor. Spending the time to develop that relationship is very important, Mason says.
“We spent time talking with certifying agent to be able to get ahead of compliancy issues. We wanted them to help guide us in what they were looking for, so we didn’t go down a bunch of rabbit trails during the process. If you are new to auditing, have conversations with them so you can learn from them – it’s not a scary process,” Mason says.
7. Be patient.
“It’s still an evolving process,” Eggers says. “The first audits in 2023 were way different than re-certifying producers in 2024. CDFA is really engaged in the process and provides lots of opportunities for us to talk about how we are auditing farms so we can be consistent and help people understand how to be compliant with the law.”
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