By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

SMITHFIELD, Va. — Last week’s Farm World reported that around 20 pigs perished in hot weather at the Farmland Foods processing plant in Monmouth, Ill. on July 19. The news was related to the publication by a pair of pork producers and Jim Kaitschuk, executive director of the Illinois Pork Producers Assoc.

Kaitschuk’s account has been confirmed by Keira Lombardo, vice president of investor relations and corporate communications for the Monmouth Farmland plant’s owner, Smithfield Foods, Inc., of Smithfield, Va. Lombardo sent an email to Farm World on July 29 in response to an earlier inquiry about the incident.
“On Tuesday, July 19, due to extreme heat, we lost approximately 20 hogs during delivery to our Farmland Foods plant in Monmouth,” Lombardo stated. “Our plant was closed for three hours while the inspector on premises reviewed our procedures for handling hogs on trucks during extreme temperatures. We immediately notified producers not to send additional hogs to our plant and also rerouted trucks already in transit to other facilities.

“We have strict handling procedures in place, which were followed by the majority of the trucks that day. Unfortunately, there was one isolated incident where handling procedures did not meet our internal standards, and we immediately took corrective actions. In addition, we enhanced our communications with drivers by providing them with printed instructions that detail our handling procedures and the availability of water during extreme heat conditions. We also revised our handling procedures that cover waiting times for unloading trucks at our facility.”

Lombardo went on to say that Farmland Foods does everything it can to protect its animals.

“We take the safety and welfare of our animals very seriously,” she wrote. “We comply with federal animal transport time guidelines and have well-established systems in place to maximize the comfort and safety of our animals. How we transport our animals from farm to processing plants is an important element of our animal well-being program. If our periodic inspections, or inspections by regulators, recommend certain enhancements to increase the comfort of our animals, we immediately implement corrective actions as part of our ongoing commitment to continually improve our animal welfare policies and procedures.”
Farmland Foods is located at 1220 N. Sixth St. in Monmouth.