Meat + Poultry - March 2006 - 69

Dr. Temple Grandin's From the Corral
Reducing bloodsplash in kosher slaughter
back remained level. Observations by
Erika Voogd, of Voogd Consulting,
Inc., have indicated that completely releasing the headholder and butt pusher
immediately after the cut increases
bleedout and facilitates the rapid onset
of insensibility.
There are three principles for increasing bleedout and reducing bloodsplash:
1. Keep cattle calm and avoid
electric prods.
2. Minimize pressure applied to
the animal's body.
3. Cut the throat with a rapid
knife stroke.
Vocalization scoring
There have been concerns about
some kosher plants' ability to meet
the American Meat Institute standard
of 5 percent or less of the cattle vocalizing during entry into the box and
during restraint. Kosher plants having either an upright restraint box or
a rotating box are capable of passing
the A.M.I. audit.
I went back through nearly 10 years
of auditing data looking at vocalization
scores at kosher slaughtering plants.
All of these plants had an upright restraint box and were doing kosher
slaughter at the time of the audit. Three
plants had conveyor restraints and seven had upright stationary boxes with a
headholder and butt pusher gate. All

Photo courtesy of Voogd Consulting Inc.

Quiet handling and reducing stress
during handling and restraint for kosher slaughter will reduce bloodsplashing and promote faster bleedout. Plants
performing kosher slaughter are still
having problems with bloodsplash.
Calm cattle become insensible more
quickly after the throat cut compared
to excitable cattle.
Rapid bleedout improves animal welfare and reduces bloodsplashing, which
is most often caused by excessive pressure from a restraint device and the use
of electric prods. Squeezing the animal
too hard with the butt pusher gate is
a major problem. Some kosher boxes
have poor controls, which make it impossible to control the amount of pressure applied to the animal.
Bloodsplashing can be reduced to
very low levels. Years ago I worked
with a John Morrell & Co. facility and
installed two upright restraint boxes.
These boxes had precision controls that
limited the amount of pressure applied
to the animal. In this kosher operation,
the bloodsplash levels were only 3.5
percent to 5 percent. These lower levels
were dependent on having a good operator at the restraint box, and I learned
how a poor operator at this position
resulted in increased bloodsplash.
Cattle walked into the box calmly and
70 percent of the animals had no reaction to the headholder. The butt pusher
was used very carefully so the animal's

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March 2006

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Percentage of Cattle
Vocalizing During Restraint
(Nine plants were assessed, using yes/no
scoring for vocalization. Each animal was
scored as either a vocalizer or quiet.)

Plant 1
Plant 2
Plant 3
Plant 4
Plant 5
Plant 6
Plant 7
Plant 8
Plant 9

2 percent
9 percent*
3 percent
5 percent
3 percent
4 percent
5 percent
7 percent **
5 percent

This plant had broken controls during
audit. It had 1 percent vocalization on
previous audit.
** This plant had sharp corners on
headholder, which could be easily
repaired.

the plants were in North America, and
if there was data from more than one
audit, the most recent audit was used
(see chart, above).
I went to three plants in Europe using rotating boxes. The first plant had
approximately 10 percent of the cattle
vocalizing. All of the vocalizations
were due to being pinched by the headholder. This is a problem that could be
easily fixed. None of the cattle vocalized during rotation. I also went to
two plants in France. Unfortunately,
no vocalization data was collected
because this trip occurred before I
developed vocalization scoring. All
three of these plants would be capable
of passing a vocalization audit. The
horrible shackle hoist system that was
removed from the old John Morrell
plant had a 100 percent vocalization
score and 100 percent of the cattle fell
down. Modern equipment has brought
about great improvements.
We would like to hear from you- your comments
and questions about this article are welcome.
E-mail the author at: meat&poultry@sosland.com

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Meat + Poultry - March 2006

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