Meat+Poultry - March 2018 - 90

FROM THE CORRAL: BACK TO BASICS

Stunner status
"Back to Basics" are previously
published "From the Corral" columns
that are published bimonthly to
readdress ongoing, common animal
welfare issues.
I am really concerned that audits
and assessments of animal welfare
or other compliance issues will turn
into bureaucratic evaluations of
paperwork. You need to consider
whether your binders full of Standard
Operating Procedures (SOPs) really
describe what you actually do on
the plant floor. Has anybody recently
looked at the SOPs and then visited
the plant floor to determine if they
describe procedures accurately? A
shelf full of binders may be giving you
a false sense of security that you are
doing things right, when the reality on
the processing floor is different.
Following is an example: Everybody
knows the importance of good captive
bolt stunner maintenance. Most large
plants have a test stand to test the
stunners to ensure that they are well
maintained and hitting with sufficient
force. An SOP has been written to

instruct the maintenance people to
When writing an SOP for stunner
test every gun each day. This is a
maintenance, do not write a long
good SOP, but it does not replace
book. Write one to four sentences for
having a knowledgeable person
each step.
who is trained to observe
For pneumatic stunners,
and assess the stunning
first conduct tests on
SOPs should
operation.
the test stand. Then
describe the
I recently visited
describe daily and weekly
procedures you
a plant where the
maintenance procedures
actually do on
pneumatic stunner
and
verification methods.
the plant floor.
functioned perfectly when
Maintain and inspect the
tested in the shop, but it
stunner air supply. And,
was having many problems
maintain and inspect the
at the stunning station. When the
balancer and the trolley it travels on.
stunner was tested in the shop it
For cartridge-fired stunners, test
had a different air supply. The poor
daily on the test stand. Then describe
stunning at the stun box was caused
daily and weekly maintenance.
by problems with the compressor at
Follow cartridge storage procedures
the stunning stand. It was undersized
to keep the cartridges dry. And have
and had not been serviced regularly.
management verification of these
Quality assurance people had forgotten procedures. Make sure stunners
that a pneumatic stunner has three
used in the yards for non-ambulatory
parts: the stunner, the air compressor
animals receive the same care as the
and the balancer.
stunners used at the stun box.
In many cases the gun is well
T E M P L E G R A N D I N | m e a t p o u l t r y @ s o s l a n d .c o m
maintained, but the other two parts
may be neglected. A worn out balancer
can cause problems with accurate
stunning. One must remember that the
balancer has two main components
that must work smoothly. The balancer
cable reel must allow the heavy
pneumatic stunner to move up and
down easily and the trolley on the
I-beam must also smoothly roll back
and forth. At one plant I visited, the gun
was working fine but the trolley did not
slide back and forth easily.

90

MEAT+ POULTRY | 03.18 | www.meatpoultry.com

© Rudmer Zwerver - stock.adobe.com, Rosalie Winard

When writing an SOP for stunner
maintenance, do not write a long book.
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Meat+Poultry - March 2018

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