Piglet producer
The Initiative Tierwohl (ITW) considers sow production and piglet rearing to be piglet production and therefore a single entity. Find out more here about the system and how it works, and what criteria participating livestock owners must implement on their farms when they join the “Stall plus Platz” programme.
The Initiative Tierwohl was founded in 2015 as a coalition of food retailers, farmers, and meat producers. Participating food retailers financed the scheme until the end of 2020 through a fund that compensated participating livestock owners for the additional costs of animal welfare. The companies paid a total of €645 million. Since January 2021, all participating trading partners and the catering industry have been paying a price surcharge for pork, beef, and poultry to suppliers. The suppliers, in turn, pass on the surcharge along the value chain to the livestock owners. In order to enable consistent ITW certification, the Initiative Tierwohl is working to attract additional piglet producers. Until the chain is closed, the trading partners and the catering industry, and since April 2024 also the abattoirs, will continue to finance the fund solution for piglet rearing. The aim is to phase out the piglet fund at the end of 2026 and integrate piglet production into market financing. In the next step, piglet rearers who have only been participating in the Initiative Tierwohl since November 2022 (“namely identity piglet rearers”) will only receive the animal welfare payment for their animals if they sell them to an ITW fattener. Piglet re어ers who have been participating in the ITW since the beginning of the third program phase or longer (“original piglet rearers”) will also continue to receive animal welfare payments for animals sold to fatteners without ITW certification for the time being.
Criteria Stall plus Platz
The Initiative Tierwohl offers piglet rearers the “Stall plus Platz” programme. To participate, livestock owners must implement a series of criteria. A clearly defined, compact catalog of requirements applies, ensuring that all animals in the ITW achieve the same high standard. Only in this way can the Initiative Tierwohl Seal provide a uniform statement about how the animals were kept. The goods thus belong to a defined flow of goods. This means that they can be traced back to the agricultural business. In the case of the Initiative Tierwohl, this means that products can be labelled with a Seal, enabling consumers to recognize meat from ITW agricultural businesses in stores.
Sow production
Piglet rearing
- Basic criteria Livestock farming, hygiene, animal health*
- Participation in antibiotics monitoring
- Health plan
- Shed climate check
- Drinking water check
- Training
- Daylight
- 10% more space allowance
- Roughage
- Piglet castration
*as specified in the QS guidelines for pig farming
- Basic criteria for livestock farming, hygiene, animal health¹
- Marketing to ITW fatteners²
- Participation in antibiotics monitoring
- Health plan
- Shed climate check
- Drinking water check
- Training
- Daylight
- Purchase of ITW piglets
- Roughage
¹as specified in the QS Guideline for Agriculture: Pig Farming
²mandatory for participants from November 2022
Certification
Certification bodies coordinate the independent inspections at participating agricultural businesses. Together with their employees, they form an important link between the Operating Company of the Initiative Tierwohl and the agricultural businesses participating in the initiative. They manage the inspection process and train the auditors who check and perform evaluations to determine whether the criteria are being implemented in accordance with the regulations.die als Kontrolleure prüfen und bewerten, ob die Kriterien vorschriftsmäßig umgesetzt werden.
Each participant is inspected at least twice a year. There are different types of audits, i.e., inspections on the farm. One of the audits, known as the programme audit, is announced a maximum of 24 hours before the inspection and is very comprehensive. All documents are also checked during this audit. In addition, there is the stock check. Here, only the criteria in the shed are examined, and the check takes place completely unannounced. Furthermore, the farmer must have the climate in his barn and the drinking water checked externally by experts once a year. Only if the inspection is passed may the company continue to participate in the Initiative Tierwohl. If the farmer does not implement the animal welfare requirements properly, he is excluded from the Initiative Tierwohl and may have to pay a contractual penalty.
In Overview: The inspection system
- Each company is audited twice a year
- A total of six audits are conducted during the program period
- One programme audit and one unannounced stock check are conducted per calendar year
- ITW, as the operating company, covers the costs of the stock checksdie Bestandschecks