Iowa Select Farms – SelectCare
Our Commitment to Excellent Care of our Animals
At Iowa Select Farms we have an ethical obligation to provide for the well-being of the animals in our care. We take this responsibility seriously. Under the leadership of Dr. Howard Hill, we have built a robust program of responsible animal care practices, herd health management and employee training programs that comply with the best practices and standards developed and recommended by the National Pork Board, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA ) and the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV).
We know that to meet the expectations of our customers for safe, high-quality and wholesome pork we must continually review and refine our animal care programs to ensure excellent animal well-being at all our farms.
SelectCare
SelectCare is a new initiative for all of our farms designed to increase our focus on continually improving our farm animal care and well-being practices.
SelectCare was developed after a comprehensive independent examination of our animal care practices and standards by Dr. Anna Johnson, a nationally recognized expert in animal behavior and well-being at Iowa State University. We requested the examination to answer questions about the animal care standards used on our farms and provide us with an expert, third-party assessment of both our current practices and the opportunities we have to further improve animal care. Dr. Johnson’s examination was funded by ISU Extension; not by us, and included on-farm tours and review of employees working with animals.
The SelectCare initiative will include the following key directives:
- Appointing Dr. Howard Hill as full-time Director of Animal Well-Being Compliance and Improvement,
- Hiring a minimum of four full-time animal well-being specialists,
- Creating an expert Animal Well-Being Advisory Committee of outside, third-party experts,
- Conducting quarterly independent audits at a minimum of three of our farms, which will be randomly selected, and
- Designing and implementing a new enhanced training and testing program for all farm employees who work with animals.
In addition to implementing the SelectCare initiative, we will continue to provide increased transparency of our animal well-being policies and procedures through the use of:
- Online farm tour videos illustrating pork production and animal well-being practices on our hog farms,
- Dedicated website pages for farm animal care and well-being, including details of the SelectCare program, and
- Continuing tours for our customers, media and other stakeholders.
Iowa Select Farms is firmly committed to excellent animal care and the production of safe, high-quality, wholesome pork. We will hold ourselves and our employees fully accountable for compliance with our animal well-being programs and policies, and will be forthright in actions necessary to ensure the health and comfort of the animals we raise.
