Province pauses on-farm slaughter sale limits

By ANNA SMITH Local Journalism Initiative on July 11, 2025.

asmith@medicinehatnews.com

Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation RJ Sigurdson gave an update Thursday to changes on farm slaughter operations on his Facebook page, placing a pause on recently added weight limits.

The change would have placed a 5,000 pound-per-year limit on operations with an On-Farm Slaughter Operation licence, which were applied for on July 2, 2025 or later, or those which were applied for prior but did not meet all of the prerequisites prior to July 2, considered “Class B OFSO license holders.”

These prerequisites include payment, OFSO application form, OFSO food safety modules quiz, confirmation of water potability and booking of pre-licensing onsite assessment. The restriction would be by the live weight of the animal, and span one calendar year.

Producers who have applied for OFSO licences and met all prerequisites prior to July 2, would be considered “Class A” licence holders, and would have no annual slaughter limits, able to slaughter all animals as per customer requests.

Both classes of licence still have the same limits of how many animals they can slaughter per customer per year, based on what is believed to be a reasonable amount of meat for one household to consume in a year, according to the On-Farm Slaughter Operation Technical Guide.

They are also both responsible for submitting reports of animals slaughtered, and neither can sell the un-inspected meat for anything other than personal use.

These operations sell live animals to customers, then perform slaughtering services on behalf of the purchaser, or may perform these services for animals procured elsewhere, as the customer in question must own the animal.

The limits for new licences were met with concerns from producers on how this could unfairly restrict smaller operations. The province acknowledged that these limits could affect the viability of some operations under the OFSO program, and as of July 8, have put a pause on the restrictions, and will be “taking immediate steps to consider those perspectives as [they] move forward,” said the update from Agriculture and Irrigation.

The update reaffirmed the province’s commitment to supporting producers, OFSO’s and abattoirs while protecting public health.

The policy will be reviewed, and “will continue working closely with industry partners to ensure our policies reflect Alberta’s high standards and shared values,” said Agriculture and Irrigation.

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