Alberta Chicken Producers - December Newsletter

2016 DECEMBER CHAIR REPORT

While this year has been busy for staff and the Board, we are now at a time for reflection and seasonal celebrations. It was good to see so many of you out at our Regional Meetings. The enthusiasm expressed by some of you for our upcoming Director training course was encouraging and we hope to see many of you attend. The Director Training course is very timely, as the Board will be having a director position to fill at the upcoming Annual General Meeting. All producers in the Province had the benefit of being well represented both provincially and nationally by David Hyink. In accordance with Regulations, after nine years of service, David will be stepping down from the Board.

This year has seen Agricultural Commodities in the Province work together on a few fronts, and it is hoped that the initiatives will continue to grow efficiencies and relationships in the New Year. Areas of collaboration include Farm Worker Safety, Research and Development and Emergency Management. Opportunities to come together, learn and grow benefit both individual producers and our organization.

Before we know it, Christmas will be upon us with the New Year right around the corner. As this year comes to a close, I would like to remind you of the importance of your contributions to Canadian consumers. You provide a safe, healthy meat protein to the market. While we are constantly challenged on many fronts (activism, legislation, media), the truth is that you continue to improve on all fronts. Thank you.

On behalf of the Alberta Chicken Producers’ Board, I would like to take this opportunity to wish each of you and your families a very Merry Christmas and continued growth and prosperity in 2017.

Erna Ference

Regional Meetings & Stakeholder Survey

Thank you to all who attended this year’s Regional Meetings.

We also want to thank all producers and industry partners who completed the stakeholder survey conducted this Fall. The Board values your input and suggestions, which have and will continue to be taken into consideration as the Board addresses its strategic goals in the months ahead. We were pleased to also congratulate the luck winner of our survey draw, , Bianca Loosman from V.L. Poultry!

We also would like to express our sincere appreciation for the generous sponsorship from BMO, FCC and National Bank toward this year’s Regional Meetings.

Producer Leadership Development Workshop

Alberta Chicken Producers will be hosting a Leadership Development Workshop for producers on January 26, 2017, in Red Deer. This is an opportunity to learn more about how to apply your leadership strengths effectively, and to expand your knowledge and experience of board governance.

An invitation and further details will be circulated to producers in mid-December.

Strategic Plan

A copy of Alberta Chicken Producers’ updated three year Strategic Plan 2016-2018 is now posted on our website here.

Border Controls

Further to the update at the 2016 Regional Meetings on recent developments in addressing illegal spent fowl imports and issues with the Duties Referral Program, on November 18^th Federal Minister of Agriculture made an announcement on the government’s commitment to addressing these issues: “The Government strongly supports supply management. We will continue to work with dairy and poultry stakeholders across the value chain to ensure effective border controls for supply-managed goods, while allowing processors to remain competitive.” - Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, P.C., M.P., Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

Activity under the Duty Referral Program has slowed this year from 60.5MKG year to date last year to 45.8MKG year to date in 2016. While it is unclear at this time, verifications may have led to a few suspensions for non-compliance with the Program.

Spent fowl imports were up again in 2016 until July, and then took a dramatic 16% decrease in August. CFIA suspended three cold storage facilities in the US for three days and another was suspended indefinitely. A House Standing Committee on International Trade was held in August to address the Duty Referral Program, Spent Fowl and Diafiltered Milk issues; and, the Committee called for the swift development of an action plan to address this issue. We are hopeful that Minister MacAulay’s recent announcement bodes well for the implementation of long-term, sustainable actions to control these issues.

Alberta’s Climate Change Policy

As you are aware, the Alberta Government announced its Climate Leadership Plan as part of the Provincial Budget in April.

ACP conducted an energy utilization survey among our farmers to quantify the impact of the carbon price by its full implementation in 2018. Depending upon the size of the operation, the Carbon Price is estimated to cost an average of $6,300 annually to our 250 family farms. This translates into over $1.4 million in additional costs per year to Alberta’s primary chicken industry. Accounting for the increased costs to the broiler breeders, it equates to an approximate 1.7cent increase per kilogram to the cost of producing chicken. This estimate is conservative as it does not include any related increases in electricity costs or indirect costs to transportation and feed; and, it is based on the energy utilization from 2015, which was very mild winter.

Alberta Minister of Agriculture, the Honourable Oneil Carlier, made an important announcement on October 24th regarding a $10 million investment from the Alberta Government into Growing Forward 2 Energy Efficiency grant programs. A key change is a shift from the current 65% producer / 35% government cost-share model to a 30% producer / 70% government cost-share model for each of these four programs. If you have not already done so, we strongly encourage producers to apply to these programs as soon as possible. Please find the details and application forms here, or contact the Board Office for further information.

The Chair and Executive Director are continuing to meet with various levels of government, as well as in collaboration with other agricultural boards, to identify solutions that address the impacts to Alberta’s agriculture sector.

Reminder to Producers – Cold Weather Conditions:

With winter upon us, we remind all chicken producers to ensure birds are dry prior to loading.

Producers must be vigilant in their barn management practices to mitigate the risks associated with barns and birds becoming wet prior to transport. We remind producers to ensure you are balancing heat and ventilation requirements to ensure your birds are dry during load out.

Should wet conditions exist on your premise, contact your Processor immediately to provide as much time as possible to address and correct any issues prior to shipment.

Click here to view a reference sheet outlining Management Practices in Winter Weather Conditions to assist in maintaining optimal barn conditions.

Best Practice

A friendly reminder that with the colder Alberta winter temperatures, it’s always best practice to regularly test your generator systems. The potential loss of a generator failure could be devastating.

Measuring Crop Fill: Something So Simple Is Worth So Much

Getting birds fed as soon as possible after they arrive on the farm kick starts both gut and immune system development. Having feed in the gut will stimulate residual yolk absorption, further supporting these processes. Maturation of the digestive enzymes needed for protein, fat, and carbohydrate digestion follows soon after. Incredibly, nearly 100% of the growth in the first 24 hours on-farm due to increased gut weight.

Our target is to have 95% of the chicks with partially or completely full crops. But how much difference does it really make whether or not we reach this target? In University of Alberta research, when comparing the performance of chicks hatched from the same batch and placed in barns with optimal vs. inadequate supplemental feed distributed on paper, 7-day weights differed by 50 grams. Every additional gram of weight at 7 days translates into approximately 8 more grams at shipping. A 50 gram difference translated into a 400 g higher shipping weight! Clearly feed conversion was positively affected, and both body weight uniformity and flock health status would also be expected to improve.

At the Early Chicken Value Chain Performance conference that took place in Winnipeg in November, testing for crop fill came up as one of most important and one of the simplest ways to improve growth performance indicators. Make sure to take the time to evaluate crop fill in your next flock and, if it’s inadequate, change your brooding set-up to improve early access to feed.

This theme will be explored along with other aspects of early chick management at upcoming Quality Chick Brooding workshops. The first of these will take place in Lethbridge in February. More details will follow in the next week. When it comes to successful brooding, it is not one size fits all. We will explore what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to maximizing flock growth, health, and welfare.

After 24 hours, more than 95% of the chicks should have feed in their crop (1+2 >95%)

Industry Barn Ventilation Workshop: Next Steps

In early December, Alberta Pork and Alberta Chicken Producers hosted a barn ventilation workshop for independent industry consultants and Government staff. Ron MacDonald and members of his AgViro Inc. team came from Ontario to provide training on ventilation systems, to provide the skills needed to evaluate on-farm systems and develop solutions to solve on-farm problems. Ventilation infrastructure and barn controllers were two of the areas that received additional focus. The group learned first-hand about the technical aspects of running a chicken barn during their visit to one of Dennis Steinwand’s barns.

The AgViro team will follow up this meeting with some producer-focused webinars on solving ventilation problem areas, strategies to best manage different brands of barn controllers, and other themes important to our producers. Often small changes can significantly impact your heating and cooling costs. Please contact Rob Renema (Producer Programs Manager) at 780-488-2125 if you have environmental control or ventilation questions you would like more information on.

Implementation of the Poultry Recommended Codes of Practice:

The Board office circulated copies of the new Recommended Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Hatching Eggs, Breeders, Chickens and Turkeys to all producers. While the key changes compared to the previous Code were discussed at the Fall Regional Meetings, a quick summary of the changes affecting broiler production can also be found in the short document CFC provided as a supplement to the Poultry Code of practice document.

CFC is expected to share proposed updates to our Animal Care Program in January. By May, we expect that the proposed changes will be made part of the annual Animal Care Program audits. Our Animal Care Program is under review and the necessary mandatory changes will be identified by March, 2018. Until that time, changes the Animal Care program that are rolled out in 2017 will only be enforced at a “Highly Recommended” (HR) level. Call Rob Renema, Producer Programs Manager, to discuss any questions you may have about these changes.

A-142 Allocation

On Nov 24, 2016 Chicken Farmers of Canada set the allocation for A-142 at +5.0%. Under the national allocation agreement, Alberta’s Allocation for A-142, which starts on February 19 and ends on April 15, 2017, is +6.75% over base.

Domestic Allocation	23,384,205 (live)
Market Development**	550,000 (live)
Total Allocation	23,934,205 (live)
Percentage of Utilization	98.30%

Government Relations:

SM5 MLA Reception

On November 2, 2016, the SM5 group co-hosted an MLA Reception at the Alberta Legislature building. The Minister of Labour, Christina Gray, brought greetings from Honourable Oneil Carlier, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, and hosted alongside our Chair, Erna Ference.

The event was a tremendous success, with 39 MLAs and 5 MLA staff in attendance. There was also good representation from each party. Alberta Counsel, SM5’s government relations agency, was in attendance, helping to facilitate conversation. An MLA farm tour is currently being planned for the New Year.

SM5 chairs with Minister Gray, November 2, 2016 – Alberta Legislature

Taste Alberta at Christmas in November

In conjunction with Taste Alberta, ACP participated in Christmas in November from November 4-13, 2016 at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. Taste Alberta sponsored cooking demonstrations by home economist Marilyn Smith who featured an Alberta chicken dish. ACP also sponsored a lunch during the event.

Representatives from Taste Alberta participated in a fireside chat, which gave attendees of the event the opportunity to ask questions about agriculture and learn where their food comes from.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Please note that over the Holidays, the Alberta Chicken Producers Board office will be closed from Friday December 23^rd through December 27^th, as well as December 29^th and January 2^nd.

Upcoming Meetings and Events:

Dec. 9: Board Meeting

Jan. 23: Intensive Livestock Working Group Meeting

Jan. 25: Board Meeting

Jan. 26: Producer Leadership Development Workshop

Feb. 22: Board Meeting

Feb. 27: Western Poultry Conference

Feb. 28: AGM

Mar. 21-22: AFAC Livestock Care Conference

Christmas Hours:

The Board office will be closed from Friday December 22, 2016 at 4:30 pm till December 28, 2016 at 8:00 am. Open from 8:00 am – 4:30 pm December 28^th, 2016. Closed the December 29^th 4:30pm to 8:00 am Jan. 2, 2017.

Annual General Meeting & Western Poultry Conference

The Alberta Poultry Industry Tradeshow and Welcome Reception

February 27, 2017

Sheraton Red Deer

Western Poultry Conference

The 3^rd Annual Western Poultry Conference will take place in Red Deer February 27, the day before the AGM. There will be presentations on Salmonella management, LED lighting, coccidiosis, selecting a barn sanitation program, euthanasia, antibiotic-free production, and more! The presentations are designed to be practical and to give you plenty to think about. Head to the website to register for updates on the program and on meeting registration.

www.westernpoultryconference.ca

Alberta Chicken Producers AGM

February 28, 2017