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Livestock

1. Living conditions:

a. Livestock must be provided with living conditions which respect their needs: reasonable liberty, lack of crowding, kindness, access to fresh water and feed, etc.

b. Livestock should have access, when seasonally appropriate, to sunshine, fresh air, soil, fresh plants, etc.

c. Livestock should have protection against excessive sunlight, temperatures, rain and wind according to the needs of the animal.

d. Livestock should have sufficient resting or lying area, with adequate bedding.

e. When the natural daylight is extended by artificial lighting, this must not lead to a day length longer than 16 hours (unless it endangers the well-being of the animal).

2. Feed:

a. Slaughter animals must be fed 100% certified organically grown feed.

b. Plastic roughage, urea, intentional manure refeeding, and similar practices are prohibited.

c. Early weaning from milk for on-farm animals (under four weeks for piglets, three months for beef & dairy, 18 kg. or two months for sheep and goats) or feeding of milk replacer are prohibited.

d. White veal production cannot be considered organic.

e. In critical years where certified grain or forage crops are unavailable or in short supply due to extreme weather conditions, the certification committee can allow a grower to buy organic, non-certified feed and forage. These purchases must be documented and pre-approved by the certification committee.

f. Growers must ensure that all feed made available to livestock has not been grown, produced or manufactured from products made from organisms that have been modified by genetically engineering techniques.

3. Supplements:

a. Any source of feed salt is acceptable.

b. Calcium phosphate materials such as marl, etc. or calcium carbonate materials such as limestone, dolomite, etc. If bonemeal is used it must be certified organic.

c. Magnesium oxide, greensand, seaweed, natural minerals and other free choice trace elements.

d. Selenium of whatever form (ingested or injected at recommended doses).

e. Vitamins should be provided from sprouted grains, fish liver oils, brewer's yeast or other natural sources. Synthetic vitamins may be permitted in cases of long winters, mountainous zones or poor forage due to bad weather. These supplements cannot contain medications nor be formulated as protein supplements requiring them to be fed at large rates (100-300 lbs/ton grain ration).

f. Synthetic growth promoters (including antibiotics and trace elements used to stimulate growth) implanted, injected or ingested are prohibited.

g. Concentrated vitamins and trace element supplements shall not generally be allowed from synthesized or unnatural sources. The Certification Committee can allow exceptions in the case of specific farm or feed deficiencies.

h. Synthetic growth promoters (including hormones, antibiotics and trace elements used to stimulate growth either ingested, implanted or injected) are prohibited.

i. Supplements using, manufactured using, or derived from products made from organisms that have been modified by genetic engineering techniques are prohibited.

4. Purchased Animals:

a. Slaughter stock must be raised on the farm in accordance with organic standards or purchased from certified organic livestock producers.

b. Breeding stock may be bought from whatever source but it may only be sold as a certified organic breeding animal if raised in compliance with these standards for one year following purchase. This animal can never be certified as slaughter stock for meat.

c. Breeding stock brought into the operation from conventional sources, must not exceed 10% of the certified adult animal operation (of that type) on an annual basis. The certification committee may allow exceptions with specific time limits in the following cases:

1. unforeseen several natural or man-made events

2. considerable enlargement of the farm

3. establishing a new type of animal production on the farm,

4. for small farms.

d. Day old poultry must be bought from certified sources whenever possible.

e. All purchased animal stock must be free from contamination by products made from organisms that have been modified by genetic engineering techniques. This includes breeding material, medication, metabolic and biological regulators, all feed and supplements. It is the growers obligation to ensure that all purchased animal stocks are free of such contamination.

5. Herd Health:

a. Good management is the key to keeping healthy livestock. Organic production systems shall be designed and maintained to provide compatible housing, pasture rotation, proper nutrition, adequate clean water and proper ventilation.

b. Cleaning agents and disinfectants should be chosen from among soaps, biodegradable detergents, iodine 5%, 1% potassium permanganate solutions, lye, alkali carbonates, caustic potash, lime, hydrogen peroxide. Chlorine bleach is prohibited.

c. Areas to be disinfected should be empty of livestock and manure should be physically removed as much as possible.

d. Biotherapies such as plant concoctions and homeopathic remedies are permitted.

e. Vaccinations (included vaccination to stimulate production of maternal antibodies), probiotics (which stimulates immune system), and similar preventative techniques are permitted when diseases are known to exist in the farm environment and cannot be controlled by other techniques. Legally required vaccines are allowed.

f. When recourse to certain active materials is deemed necessary, slaughter animals may not be sold as certified organic.

g. If an animal is dependent on active intervention, it should be removed from the herd.

6. Breeding:

a. Natural service is the ideal.

b. Since breeding methods have minimal effect on the quality of the meat produced, various other methods are tolerated, provided they do not restrict the gene pool.

c. Embryo transfer techniques are not permitted.

7. Slaughter:

a. Animals must be treated humanely during loading, unloading, shipping, holding, and slaughter.

b. Slaughter must be effected under sanitary conditions, which means government approved slaughterhouses.

c. Animals must be clearly identified in such a manner as to preclude confusion with non-certified meat. Ideally, certified meat should be slaughtered as a separate batch or hung apart from non-certified meat.

8. Physical alterations:

Practices that may be considered physical alterations are not allowed unless the practice is to the animals ultimate benefit. These practices shall not cause suffering or be used where less invasive practices are available, not be used to circumvent a deficiency in animal husbandry.

The following practices are not allowed:

1. tail cutting

2. de-beaking

3. wing burning.

9. Audit:

a. An audit trail must be maintained which will permit tracing the sources and amount of all feeds, supplements, medication, etc.

b. If animals are not individually identified by numbered tags, each animal that is treated with an active material must be clearly identified with a tag specifying the material and date of treatment (with the exception of poultry).

c. Each animal must be traced from birth to slaughter.

10. Standards for dairy production:

The standards are the same as for meat production, with the exception of the following additions and clarifications.

a. Certification applicants must have a quota (in the case of fluid cow milk) and all necessary licenses to legally produce and sell milk in the province of Nova Scotia.

b. Certified organic milk shall be from milk animals that have been fed 100% certified organic feed for at least one year during and prior to certification.

c. In the case of new and certifiable herds, animals shall be fed a minimum of 80% of daily ration of organic feed for ten months followed by being feed 100% certified organic feed sixty days prior to certifiable status.

d. Purchased production stock into certified organic herds:

1. should be from certified organic sources,

2. can be from sources which qualify under the new herd provision (10.c)

3. as a last resort, purchased stock can be from conventional sources given the number of these adult animals (milking and one year prior to milking) on the farm does not exceed a maximum of 10% of the adult herd on an annual basis. Milk can only be sold as certified organic after full compliance with the standards for one year and continuously thereafter.

e. Dairy replacements (off-farm) on an organic dairy must be fed feed which is non-medicated, including milk replacer (whole milk is preferable) up to the required one year prior to certification.

f. The use of antibiotics, prohibited parasiticides (internal and external) and all hormones is prohibited. If recourse to these substances is deemed necessary, that animals production cannot be sold as organic for at least one full year. The certification committee must be notified when the farm would like to bring treated animals back into organic production.

g. Cleansers and sanitizers (on-farm)

1. all cleansers and sanitizers for dairy farms and dairy processing facilities must conform to the list of allowed substances described in 5.b. If possible, sanitary standards should be met using NSOGA-approved materials.

2. government regulations require the cleaning and sanitizing of all milk handling equipment by government approved substances.

3. rinsing after sanitizing is in violation of government regulations.

h. All regulatory sanitation requirements and quality standards for bacteria and somatic cell count (SCC) must be observed. In addition, the annual average SCC should not exceed 400,000 for bovine (800,000 for ovine or caprine) or local regulations, whichever is lower. Maximum bacteria counts should not exceed 100,000 or local regulations, whichever is lower. Individual animals are recommended to be on a monthly SCC testing. Failure to comply with these quality levels will require a farm plan response to be implemented to come into compliance and be approved by the certification committee. A new herd should have under a 400,000 (800,000) average SCC for the three months prior to certifiable status.

i. Water quality:

Dairy animals must drink water with nitrate levels below 10mg nitrate nitrogen/liter (45 mg N03/liter) and satisfy all government requirements concerning bacteria and other microlife. If a farmer is unable to meet these requirements, a farm plan response shall be implemented to come into compliance.
Individual standards

The following constitute minimum standards of organic certification, and must be met or exceeded by all NSOGA members seeking to use the "N.S.O.G.A. Certified Organic" logo. (Click on each for more information)

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