In its first year of delivery, enrollment in the Assiniboine Community College’s Swine Transportation and Handling program in Brandon, Manitoba has topped 200. The College launched the program about one year ago and so far, over 200 drivers have completed the training. The course has two components, the National Pork Board’s Trucker Quality Assurance program in the United States and a Canadian component developed by the ACC.
Deanne Miller, Assiniboine Community College’s course instructor says the U.S. manual includes chapters on the drivers’ attitude, using animal behavior and natural instincts, the flight zone and point of balance, and aggressive handling. It also includes loading and unloading of pigs, the fitness of the hogs, facilities and equipment, the conditions of the truck and environment, things like space, weather conditions, transporting issues, biosecurity, laws and regulations and an emergency response plan.
“We have a Canadian manual that’s in addition to the US manual,” said Miller. “We felt as an industry the U.S. component or manual did not have enough information on certain topics. It actually missed a few topics like the Canadian Quality Assurance program, handling weanlings, biosecurity, and the Canadian regulations so we just wrote the Canadian portion as an addendum to the U.S. manual.”
The addendum has extra material and more detail on the CQA, the Animal Care Assessment Tool, cold weather hauling, handling early-weaned pigs and the Canadian regulations. Miller says the program is for anyone involved in the loading, unloading and transportation of hogs, especially truckers, but anybody in the barn or at packing plant, should take the course. Many US processors require TQA certification to deliver to their plants. She expects processing plants in Manitoba will eventually require the training in Manitoba, too.