Thursday April 29, 2010

Danish genetics at Pig Fair

East Anglia-based Bacton Pigs, which imports Danish genetics, says it will be seeking multipliers at next month’s British Pig and Poultry Fair.

Trading as DanBred International UK, it operates a specific pathogen-free high health multiplication unit and a specific pathogen-free high health stud.

”People who have a serious interest in becoming multipliers for DanBred International UK are welcome to contact us on stand 142 for more information,” said sales manager Simon Guise.

A vet will be on the stand to talk about importation, also one of the Danish pig breeders who has supplied pigs to the British company.

Wednesday April 28, 2010

Welfare unilateralism is rife on the continent

By Digby Scott

When it comes to pig welfare, the Danes are ahead of the Brits in some ways.

Britain proved itself to be Europe’s biggest single-issue unilateralist when it banned stalls in 1999, triggering long-term decline in the national pig industry.

But Denmark has since become one of the European countries most addicted to chronic unilateral welfare legislation.

Whilst the United Kingdom government no longer gold-plates European welfare law — having learned its lesson from the stalls ban — Danish politicians love to tinker.

In Denmark, minimum unobstructed floor space for a gilt is greater than demanded by European Union legislation.

And the European minimum requirement for continuous solid floor space is also greater for most pigs in Denmark, albeit with a transition period for existing buildings.

In Denmark pen sides for loose-housed sows and gilts must be at least 3m, compared to the European minimum of 2.8m.

Also the Danes go further than minimum requirements for manipulable material by insisting that some rooting material is put on the floor.

Teeth-clipping is forbidden. Only grinding is allowed, and it must be carried out in the first four days.

Tail-docking is allowed, but no more than half the tail may be removed, and it must be done between days two and seven.

Denmark also demands a misting system for pregnant sows and gilts in loose-housed systems, for pigs heavier than 20kg.

When it comes to gold-plating European pig welfare legislation, no country can hold a candle to Sweden.

But several countries, in addition to Denmark, now impose greater restrictions on pig-keepers.

Both Germany and Holland demand a greater minimum unobstructed floor space for weaners and finishers.

And Austria, Germany and Holland impose a greater minimum unobstructed floor space for gilts.

In Holland, as in Denmark, the requirement for continuous solid floor space is greater for most pigs than the European minimum.

In Germany, finishers must have at least 50 percent continuous solid floor.

Dutch law requires a smaller slat gap — 10mm instead of 11mm — and Austrian law also demands a 1mm smaller gap, for piglets and weaners.

When it comes to when stalls can and cannot be used, Holland says sows and gilts must be kept in groups from four days after service until one week before farrowing, instead of the four weeks after service allowed by European law.

United Kingdom law stipulates that a pig must be free to turn round without difficulty at all times.

But it accommodates farrowing crates with the proviso, “This shall not apply in relation to a female pig for the period between seven days before the predicted day of her farrowing and the day on which the weaning of her piglets (including any piglets fostered by her) is complete.”

Austria, Belgium, Germany and Sweden all have stricter requirements for lighting levels than the European Union minimum.

"IPPC and you" — available at Pig Fair

This special edition of NPA News Digest (above) will be available on the NPA stand at Pig Fair.

Produced by NPA and BPEX, it is targeted at pig-keepers who expect to be applying for an IPPC permit this year.

Containing practical advice from Nigel Penlington, of BPEX, Barney Kay, of NPA, and Lizzie Press, of BQP, it guides would-be members of the "IPPC Club" through the process of gathering all the necessary paperwork together, and then completing the forms.

Joining IPPC is not a process to be undertaken lightly, caution the authors — and once you are in the club, you will be bound by its exacting rules.

A further special edition of News Digest will be published in a few weeks, offering step-by-step help to IPPC permit-holders who expect to applying for a permit variation this year.

World Cup recipes

"Score with Pork" is the name of a BPEX’s retail promotion this summer which aims to maximise sales during the World Cup.

The campaign will be targeted at pubs and catering establishments screening World Cup matches.

Free point-of-sale kits are available, containing a wall planner, poster and recipe — Greek-style pork skewers in pitta; Madras pork kebabs in naan; Ham, egg and ‘chips’ in a bun; Potato skins with chilli pork and cheese; Thai-style pork burgers; Pork, plum and sage rolls.

Each recipe comes with pre-match preparation advice to speed up service and promotes the importance of sourcing quality assured pork.

The recipe leaflet can be downloaded from www.porkforcaterers.com, along with point-of-sale kit order form.

Tuesday April 27, 2010

Temporary stay in pig feed case

A businessman being sued over the Irish pig feed dioxin contamination scandal in 2008 is appealing against the Irish High Court’s refusal to halt the case against him and his company.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly has granted Gerard Tierney a temporary stay on the High Court’s refusal to dismiss the case brought by Millstream Recycling Ltd, Clonmahon, Bunclody, Co Wexford, against Mr Tierney and his company, Newtown Lodge, Fairview, Dublin.

Last March, Mr Tierney (75) lost his High Court bid to stop the case in which it is claimed he and Newtown Lodge supplied defective oil which contaminated pig feed with dioxins and led to the recall of all Irish pork products in 2008 at a cost of more than £156m.

Mr Tierney and Newtown had claimed Millstream had no prospect of success in its action against them. It was denied the oil supplied to Millstream was defective. If the oil was contaminated, Mr Tierney/Newtown claimed that was not their fault as, they alleged, it had been supplied to them by another company, O’Neill Fuels Ltd, Annaghmore Hill, Coalisland, Co Tyrone. — Irish Times.

Monday April 26, 2010

European price forecasts

An average pig price this year of 122p a kilo is predicted by the Brussels pigmeat working group.

The forecast, which is made up of individual forecasts by industry representatives of the European Union’s 27 member countries, sees an average price of 121.60p this quarter.

It predicts 131.78p in July-September, and 118.76p in the final quarter of the year.

If the forecasts prove accurate, it means DAPP will peak at 150-155p this year.

European stalls ban could be delayed

Pressure is building on the continent for a delay in implementing the 2013 partial stalls ban, because so many pig-producers cannot find the money to convert to loose-housing.

A recent vote in a committee meeting at farmers union Copa-Cogeca found 16 in favour of pressing Brussels for a derogation, and only one — Denmark — in favour of the partial ban going ahead as planned in January 2013.

But just because so many countries want a derogation, it doesn’t mean it is going to happen, says NPA chairman Stewart Houston, who was unable to attend the Copa Cogeca meeting.

At a meeting of the Brussels advisory group on pigmeat, he heard from the Brussels department of health and consumer affairs that a derogation is unlikely to be agreed, because it would undermine the credibility of the European Commission.

If continental pig producers were set on keeping sow stalls they would have to campaign, through the council of ministers, for a change in the law, and that would take two to three years, suggested the department of health and consumer affairs.

But despite this reassurance, Stewart Houston remains concerned that Brussels might yet cave in to demands for a derogation.

If they did, it would leave British pig producers, who have invested heavily in loose-housing, at a continuing disadvantage.

Like the Danes, the Dutch and the Swedes he is adamant the European partial ban should go ahead in January 2013, as planned.

NPA takes its welfare interventions message to Brussels

Euro-politicians will be served a breakfast of British bacon, eggs and sausages at the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday.

It's an NPA and NFU initiative to highlight high animal welfare standards achieved by British pig farmers.

NPA will be represented by Stewart Houston, Barney Kay, Zoe Davies and Howard Revell. Dalehead will provide the meat.

"We will be in Brussels to guide European Union policy-makers in making the right regulatory choices, keeping in mind the need for economic stability in the industry," said NPA chairman Stewart Houston.

NPA is concerned that instead of relying on science, Brussels may be unduly influenced by organisations such as Compassion in World Farming when it comes to welfare interventions, such as tail-docking and manipulable materials.

Why the Red Tractor must always be in front

By Digby Scott

The British flag on meat means much more to shoppers than "this product is British". That’s why it is important the Red Tractor Pork, Bacon and Ham logos always appear on the front of packs.

A quick glance at the British flag is enough to assure most shoppers that food miles and farming standards are okay, according to a survey by the Food Standards Agency.

It may even suggest to some that the product is organic (and from this they infer higher animal welfare).

This confirms what pig producers have always known — that when manufacturers and retailers pass off imported pigmeat as British by using the Union flag, they are gaining a significant commercial advantage at the expense of British pig-keepers.

The survey shows country of origin information is not generally a priority for shoppers in supermarkets but is more important where meat is concerned, because shoppers feel more comfortable with locally sourced meat.

Animal welfare is important to some people but it is rarely a factor in choice (however much we may wish it otherwise) as shoppers feel they don’t have enough information to make an informed choice.

And food miles are not important to shoppers yet either. They may claim they are concerned about food miles, but their behaviour when shopping suggests otherwise, according to the survey.

A problem for the British pig industry is the halo effect associated with well-known brands.

Thus the well-known Walls logo signifies quality and safety — distracting from the other information, such as country of origin.

Another reason why, as an industry, we should strive always to get the Red Tractor Pork, Bacon and Ham logos on the front of packs, rather than the reverse, is that shoppers avoid reading the back of food packs.

They prefer to use words or symbols on the front as beacons to quickly guide their shopping.

Consumers are concerned about safety — but their concerns are easily satisfied. Supermarket brands quickly reassure them the product is safe.

This is why the pig industry’s meat and bonemeal campaign (in the days when feeding meat and bonemeal was legal on the continent but was no longer practiced here) never really made much headway.

Most German pigs now assured

Ninety percent of German pork is now covered by the German quality assurance scheme QS (Qualitätssicherung), which was founded nine years ago.

Resistant bacteria threat

It isn’t just farmers and farm workers who may be infected by antibiotic resistant bacteria from pigs, according to the senior physician at the department of clinical microbiology at Odense University in Denmark.

People who are not in direct contact with animals are also known to pick up resistant staphylococci MRSA, accoprding to Professor Hans Jorn Kolmos.

Since 2001, consumption of antibiotics in Danish pig production has increased around 20 percent, according to a the monitoring programme Danmap. Most of the increase can be attributed to PMWS.

In Denmark, consumption of antibiotics is slightly higher than in the other Scandinavian countries but it is far lower than in Holland, Spain, and the States.

World Cup will help prices

The world cup and the barbecue season combined should see a lift in pigmeat consumption —especially sausages —on the continent, according to German processor Tönnies.

It expects to see a ten percent lift, which will bring the German price per kilo to 125p. Tönnies boss Clemens Tönnies has a reputation for accurately predicting price trends.

Saturday April 24, 2010

Pig producers benchmark their appreciation

By Ian Campbell

Jean, that stalwart of BPISG, then NPA, has taken early retirement at the age of 73, from her job with the East of England Development Agency.

We don’t really believe it since there she was on Tuesday night at the NPA meeting in East Anglia, and again the next day at the Schools Farm Fair in her Ladies in Pigs uniform, full of that incredible enthusiasm she always brings to everything.

The East Anglian pig industry was keen to mark her retirement, and her valued service over the years, with something to remind her of the love and affection that she generated during some of the darkest days for our pig industry.

So we have given her a garden seat inscribed with the words:

Jean
Retired but not forgotten
East Anglian pig producers say ‘thank you’

It is a sobering thought, as pig producers now enjoy profitable employment and a belief once again in their future, that it is only 12 years ago that many were contemplating not just an absence of profit but the very real prospect of losing their homes and pensions.

It made me very proud to be associated with an industry that got off its backside and collectively fought the forces that were content to see the end of British-produced pigmeat.

But it was the tireless effort of Jean in East Anglia that marshalled and coerced people to attend those demonstrations and marches.

As I look back, I have some small regrets that our work kept some businesses going longer than they should have, but the counterbalance to that is the hope that the work of BPISG and NPA gave to so many people at a time when that was all there was left to justify keeping going.

For us, Jean was the voice that conveyed that hope whilst at the same time kicking any backsides that thought it was someone else’s job to protest — cometh the hour, as they say.

School's sausages win gold award

Staff and year 11 pupils at a Lancashire school have turned their hands to sausage-making.

Ripley St Thomas Church of England High School, at Lancaster, which already raises its own livestock, took the next step in the supply chain and learned to make its own sausages with the help of a local food processor.

Pleased with the results, the school entered two sausages into a competition for butchers in the north-west and won two gold awards.

The event — the BPEX butcher roadshow and product evaluation event — took place at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton and drew almost 300 products from butchers and farm shops across the region.

Friday April 23, 2010

This is no time to gloat

British bacon sellers are now enjoying a premium of something like 25p/kg compared with their European counterparts. This is no time to gloat but to keep anxiously looking over our shoulder as even enhanced British-spec pigs still remain vulnerable to cheaper foreign substitutes. Traffic Lights commentary.

Pig farmers come top in reducing greenhouse gas emissions

A new survey reveals that one in four farmers has noticed increased interest from customers in his environmental performance over the past year.

Over half those surveyed recognise that addressing climate change offers potential business opportunities — a significant rise on last year — and the number of farmers producing their own energy has doubled.

Almost half are taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their land (48 percent), and one in three (31 percent) farmers are doing something to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Pig farmers came out top in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with 63 percent saying they were taking action.

A survey has been released by Farming Futures, an industry-led project that seeks to help farmers respond to climate change.

Other key findings from the survey are:

• 42 percent think that investments in climate change action will pay off within 10 years.
  
  
• 74 percent think that producers should work more closely with processors and retailers to combat climate change.
  
  
• 82 percent think that farmers should work together and share ideas more to combat climate change, which could include setting up buying/sharing cooperatives, or ‘knowledge’ cooperatives.
  
  
• 88 percent said that rising input prices were making them more efficient with their resources, an increase on last year.
  
  
• Farmers are increasingly interested in measuring their farm’s carbon footprint – 36 percent compared to 31 percent last year.

Wednesday April 21, 2010

REAL WELFARE for pigs

May issue of Pig World will report the latest news from BPEX's Real Welfare project, which in due course will provide all English Red Tractor pig producers with management tools to demonstrate the welfare credentials of their pig units, indoors as well as outdoors.

What the bin man found...

It's no wonder some feed bins harbour mycotoxins and moulds. This pile of solid, rancid feed was recently "mined" from a feed bin by Tony Sargeson, of ARN.

Producers discuss marketing levy at 'uplifting' East Anglia meeting

Above: Peter Havers gets ready to serve up.

By Zoe Davies

Around 70 people attended a joint NPA and Ladies in Pigs meeting at Athelington Hall in Suffolk last night.

Peter Havers provided the perfect setting with his purpose-built conference facilities.

After a brief overview of NPA activities by Barney Kay, a market report by Mick Sloyan, of BPEX, and an update on how BPEX works with retailers by Simon Brookes, the meeting began to debate ways of maintaining the British premium.

Free-range producer Jimmy Butler showed how we only spend 0.35 percent of our levy on marketing where most companies spend 4-6 percent of turnover on promoting their brands.

He argued the case for the collection of extra funds from producers for targeted marketing, and although there were a few gasps when he suggested the levy should be doubled, in the discussions afterwards the majority of producers thought it was a sensible idea (although how the money would be spent would need some serious consideration).

Alistair Butler gave us the benefit of his marketing experience, urging the industry to think about how to connect with the consumer and create unique selling points.

He suggested that ‘Meat You Can Trust’ was a good starting point and that we should openly support those customers who support us and keeping the message simple.

The meeting was then split into four groups, to discuss some specific questions. This was a first for our regional meetings, and it worked really well.

Producers came up to me afterward to say how good it was to have a meeting on such as positive topic and to have the opportunity to join in.

The key message was that we need to encourage more producers to re-engage with consumers directly.

It was even suggested we have a National Pig Day similar to LEAF's Open Farm days.

We could make more of celebrity supporters and emphasise the fact that consumers can trust British.

The meeting finished with a cookery demonstration of ‘quickie pork mince stir fry’ by the fabulous Ladies in Pigs who had also brought some examples of the material they produce to promote British pork.

Impressed by their professional style, Kevin Burrows, of Lamberts, suggested the ladies make a cookery demonstration DVD that could be sold and played in his butcher shops.

BPEX people were busy scribbling notes all through the discussion so hopefully they found some good things to take forward.

After the meeting, Peter Havers did us proud with a gorgeous hog roast — I had thirds — sponsored by Andrew Zarkos Smith, who sadly couldn’t make the evening as he was stuck in Crete.

Ladies in Pigs provided all the puddings, so everyone went home with very full contented bellies! What an uplifting meeting.

Pork with Promise

Stuck for new recipe ideas? Download the new Ladies in Pigs recipe leaflet "Pork with Promise".