Feast of Fiddles tonight
If you are coming to see Feast of Fiddles tonight and would like a map showing car parking, please email Digby.
Friday April 9, 2010
Pig producers could be farming’s most stunning redheads
By Digby Scott
 The Quality Standard Mark is nine days behind us. So maybe it’s time to start making our presence felt as fully-fledged Red Tractor types. Maybe it’s time to show those other sectors what the pig industry is made of.*
Around 90 percent of pigs slaughtered in Britain are Red Tractor assured.
It will certainly show the rest of farming what a go-get bunch we are in this sector if every Red Tractor pig unit prominently displays a Red Tractor Pigs sign (above).
And every time a member of the public asks what the sign stands for, pig-keepers can explain with pride that it means they choose to pay a significant sum from their own pockets to be rigorously checked by vets and independent auditors.
They can stress that the Red Tractor audit is a tough test of a pig producer’s professionalism and entitles members to boast that they produce pigs to safety and welfare standards that are higher than in practically any other country in the world.
The pig industry has a reputation for making things happen... so why not paint the countryside red?
Red Tractor Pigs signs for Assured British Pigs and Genesis Quality Assurance members are now available in weatherproof plastic for just £10.
When you buy one (or more) you will also receive the signage artwork either via email or on a disc, enabling you to also add the logo to your stationery.
To order your sign(s) send your cheque for £10 (for each sign) made payable to BPEX, to:
Red Tractor Pigs Farm Assurance Sign,
BPEX Marketing,
Stoneleigh Park,
Kenilworth,
Warwickshire CV8 2TL.
Include the following information:
- Your name.
- Your business name and address.
- Your telephone number.
- Your email address.
- Your assurance scheme number.
For further information or any queries email redtractor@bpex.org.uk.
*(Yeah Bullock, hanging preps an' all).
Vion’s new grades
In Holland, Vion has introduced a new grading and payment system. These are:
- Good Farming Global.
- Good Farming Welfare (for the British market).
- Good Farming Star (for the Dutch market).
- Good Farming Organic.
Thursday April 8, 2010
Danes target China
A number of Danish investors, including DanBred International and Scandinavian Farms, are jointly investing nearly £3m in pig production in China, through a pig genetics company that will produce 3,800 breeding pigs and 7,600 slaughter pigs a year. The aim is to gain a foothold in the Chinese market, which is the largest in the world.
The company, Dan YU Pig Breeding Technology, will be established in the Chinese province of Jiangsu. The farm is a greenfield project and will be set up to equal Danish pig production standards. Production will be based on 500-600 sows imported from Denmark.
T'ain't only skatole
It is highly probable that apart from skatole, indole and androsthenone, there are other components that contribute to boar taint, according to researcher Coen van Wagenberg, of Wageningen University and Research Centre in Holland.
He heated boar tainted meat, caught its gases and separated them. A panel then carried out a sniffing test whereupon new components that contribute to boar taint became apparent.
Van Wagenberg believes it is possible to detect boar taint on the slaughter line as long as those doing the detecting are allowed scheduled breaks so that they stay alert.
He believes that ultimately an electrionic smell detector will be able to do the work, similar to detectors used in airports for drugs detection.
Foot and mouth exercise
A joint foot-and-mouth disease simulation took place near the borders of Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg and Germany. The aim was to improve cooperation in the event of an outbreak. Locating the exercise close to the countries' borders, gave the veterinary services involved the chance to work together in all the relevant phases of managing a foot-and-mouth crisis.
England's biggest-ever welfare project
Over 300 pig units will be invited to take part in the biggest ever welfare survey ever conducted by the English pig industry.
BPEX’s ‘real welfare’ project is a new management tool for pig-keepers.
It will help them improve the welfare of their pigs by scoring a number of meaningful welfare indicators, such as tail and body lesions, and lameness.
And it should also provide scientifically robust data to counter any unfounded claims by vegetarian and animal welfare groups.
European producers are likely to have their own ‘welfare quality’ scheme in due course, but for the present English producers are in the lead.
When the English project becomes part of farm assurance it will provide a new point of differentiation to help English producers maintain their 20p premium.
The 'real welfare' project is being run by a group comprising BPEX, producers, vets, researchers, RSPCA, and others.
It will involve specialist pig vets being trained to carry out welfare-outcome audits of pig farms, applying scores for a number of welfare indicators.
The results will be benchmarked so pig-keepers are able to compare their husbandry and take the necessary actions to improve welfare, and probably productivity too.
The RSPCA has been collecting its own welfare outcomes data for around two years and is now in a position to start analysing the data it has built up on body condition, eye and nose discharge, skin and tail lesions, limb injuries, fighting and abnormal behaviour.
All farms assured by Freedom Food and the Soil Association will be assessed and as the indicators chosen by the RSCPA are similar to those chosen for the BPEX scheme it might, in due course, be possible to compare data collected.
At a technical meeting last week, the BPEX group agreed that lesion counting was probably preferable to lesion scoring, as counting removes the subjectivity of deciding whether a flesh mark is a lesion or not.
During the scheme’s pilot stage, vets will work with BPEX and others to determine lesion thresholds — in other words, how many lesions on a pig indicate a possible welfare problem.
Eighty farms of each type of finishing system — fully-slatted, part-slatted, minimum straw and deep-straw — will now be invited to take part in the welfare outcomes project, with BPEX’s Lis Ravn acting as co-ordinator.
In the months ahead, the project team will provide the necessary information to producers to help them use results from the project as a useful management tool.
The five indicators to be assessed will each be the subject of an article in Pig World, explaining why the particular indicator has been chosen, and how it can be used to help assess welfare.
The BPEX ‘real welfare’ project could have a number of benefits as far as pig-keepers are concerned.
For instance it could help them demonstrate when welfare interventions such as tail-docking are essential in the interests of good welfare, and when the manipulable material they supply is effective as environmental enrichment.
It may also demonstrate that welfare standards on indoor units are as good as — or even better in some cases? — than on outdoor units, which are perceived by the public, and retailers, to be more welfare-friendly.
The project is underpinned by research carried out by University of Bristol. It is the result of a considerable ongoing investment of levy-payers’ money.
For more information see “English pig industry launches real welfare for pigs”, Pig World, March 2010.
The five measures to be assessed are:
- Lameness
- Tail lesions
- Body lesions
- 'Hospitalisation'
- Enrichment use.
Goodbye to commodity pork
The Canadian pig industry will start to look more like its British counterpart in the years ahead. Cash-strapped Canadian pig-keepers are kissing goodbye to producing commodity pork for sale at loss-making world prices and will in future spend more time wooing domestic customers. They will also look to value-added export markets such as Japan where consumers like pink, lean pork, and Korea, where they like paler and fatter pork.
Hepatitis-E in wild boar
Around 15 percent of wild boar shot in Germany are infected with the Hepatitis-E virus, a rare form of liver disease. It is not yet clear if it can be directly transmitted from animals to humans.
All's not whale in Denmark
A slip of the pen can set up some interesting alarums. The Danes were accused of buying whale-meal from Iceland, to feed illegally to their pigs. This sparked a full-scale investigation which has discovered that what the Danes actually imported was fish-meal. The Icelandic exporter had filled in the export declaration incorrectly.
Organic undergrowth
Fewer than one percent of French sows come from an organic pig farm. Total number of organic sows in France decreased 3.3 percent last year, down to 4,724.
German producers to visit England
Bioland, an organic farming association in Germany, is to visit in England, to find out more about organic outdoor pig production. The visit will be co-funded by the German ministry of agriculture as part of an farm-to-plate initiative. The Germans hope to visit organic farms, a slaughterhouse and processor, and supermarkets.
Piglet survival workshops
Dr. Emma Baxter from the Scottish Agricultural College will lead BPEX workshops on piglet management.
She has specialist knowledge on neonatal piglet survival and housing systems that optimise animal welfare, on both indoor and outdoor units.
The workshops will focus on understanding piglet viability factors for improving management and performance. They will also look at the future of farrowing systems.
- Tuesday 20 April - The Croft Hotel, Darlington, DL2 2ST.
- Wednesday 21 April – The Feathers Hotel, Pocklington, YO42 2AH.
- Tuesday 27 April - The Crown Hotel, Borougbridge, YO51 9LB.
All workshops start 6pm for 6.30pm.
To register contact Lis Ravn on 07891 656784, lisbeth.ravn@bpex.org.uk.
Tuesday April 6, 2010
BOCM Pauls launch new starter feeds
The latest products to emerge from BOCM Pauls' feed development programmes for pigs and poultry will be highlighted on the company’s stand at this year’s British Pig and Poultry Fair, May 11-12. BOCM Paul’s stand is 97.
The new Stimmulate free range layers feeds include the Advance 248 diet, designed to ensure advances in genetic potential created by breeding companies are fully exploited through greater precision in the feeding of free range layers.
Also featured will be innovative new piglet starter feeds which encompass a radical nutritional package which has produced significant improvements in growth rate and feed conversion efficiencies in controlled testing and commercial trials.
The company emphasises its ongoing commitment to research and development and points to its product development programme which has already resulted in the introduction of the new piglet creep and free range layer feeds, together with a new range of pig breeder feeds, the reproductive enhancement supplement Reproflor and the market leading Sovereign pig grower and Olympic pig finisher diets, both focussed on feeding the growing pig in a more precise and effective way.
Danish Crown slaughterhouses to be wound down
Following the failure of its plan to cut slaughterhouse wages by 20 percent in a bid to become competitive, much of Danish Crown’s pig slaughtering in Denmark will be phased out.
The cooperative is to axe 600 jobs when opportunities arise and in future, most of its processing will take place in countries where slaughterhouse costs are lower.
It will have to retain some domestic slaughtering capability, however, in order to retain its export approvals for Japan and the United States.
Danish Crown wanted to cut costs by £220m, with £70m of this coming from wage cuts.
But talks with the workforce failed and a mediator now says slaughterhouse workers should be guaranteed the same salary increases as the rest of the private labour market in Denmark.
This proposal covers around 600,000 employees and signals significant increases in Danish Crown operating costs.
Brits save Danish slaughterhouse
A British company has stepped in to save a Danish slaughterhouse.
Bucking the trend towards phasing out pig slaughtering in Denmark, a small slaughterhouse at Vraa in Northern Jutland is to reopen.
It will be run by a new company, Danish Meat Company 2010. The company plans to send carcase halves to the United Kingdom for further processsing.
The privately-owned British company Midland Bacon Company is behind the project. During the first few months all slaughterings from Danish Meat Company 2010 will be sent to its factory in Birmingham.
Favourite weekend meals
Bacon and sausage sandwiches are real weekend favourites, unlike ham which is popular on any day of the week.
Ham is also the second most popular sandwich filling, both at home and at work, coming second only to cheese.
Most popular sandwiches in the home, in order, are:
- Cheese
- Ham
- Bacon
- Egg
- Tuna
- Sausage
- Chicken
Twenty-eight percent of pork is eaten on Sundays, driven by the Sunday roast. The nation's favourite Sunday roasts, in order, are:
- Poultry
- Beef
- Pork
- Lamb
Pork is stable as an evening meal but is declining in popularity as a lunchtime meal at home. Ham, on the other hand, is growing in popularity as a lunchtime meal at home.
Sausages, bacon and pork chops are popular evening meals. The country's favourite evening meals, in order, are:
- Whole chicken
- Sausages
- Beef mince
- Chicken legs/thighs
- Bacon rashers
- Steak
- Pork chops
- Bacon/ham joints
- Pork joints
Yorkshire and Humberside Health - 12 months on
Through the Yorkshire and Humberside Health initiative pig producers in the region are making strides in implementing control measures for endemic disease.
Project vet from the Ripon-based Bishopton group, Nigel Woolfenden, will discuss the success of the project a year on at the Pig Health forum on both days of the British Pig and Poultry Fair, May 11-12.
“The level of commitment from producers in the region has been astounding,” he says. “The initiative is all about communication and co-operation and I will demonstrate how this has been crucial in enabling the mapping out of units to happen and establishing the health status of each one.”
Chairing the forum is Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire pig producer Richard Lister, who will discuss the biosecurity protocols the Yorkshire and Humberside Health initiative is putting in place.
“We want to be confident that we have measures in place that will help prevent disease coming on to our units and also, in the unfortunate event of a disease breakdown, the systems are in place to stop it leaving the farm,” he said.
“We are developing comprehensive protocols that should stand us in good stead should there be a disease threat in future and I will be sharing these ideas with visitors to the pig health forum.”
Initiatives similar to that in Yorkshire and Humberside are being developed in other parts of the country so there will be a great deal of information in this forum to interest British pig producers.
The forum takes place at 12.30pm on the first day – Tuesday May 11 - and 11am on Wednesday May 12, in the theatre area between Exhibition Halls 1 and 2.
Sunday April 4, 2010
What is it with young women and pork?
The over-45s are still pork's core customers, but younger consumers are catching up.
If you have a farm shop and a late-teens or early-20s girl walks in... give her a welcoming smile and direct her to the pork, bacon, sausage and ham displays, because research shows she is your hip new young customer.
But if she's 25 or more, practically over the hill, best show her the courgettes or something... because the chances are it won't be your pork she's after.
Bacon, ham and sausage sales have grown over the past year. Pork has remained stable, but it has grown 5 percent since 2007.
Sausages and ham have a younger profile and are popular with children. Core pork consumers are eating less pork but younger customers are driving growth.
Commodity prices
Commodity prices will discussed in one of the British Pig and Poultry Fair forums.
Three industry experts, Hugh Burton, of ABN, Simon Christensen, of Frontier, and Alex Miller, of Cargill, will give their opinion on future raw material issues.
After discussions, the audience will be asked to cast their vote on the debate they believe to be the most likely scenario.
The obvious change in the next 12 months is the effect of increased bioethanol production in the United Kingdom which is set to take around 12 percent of home grown wheat production. Around a third of this will return to animal feed as a wheat distillers co-product.
The volatility of exchange rates seen recently, the precarious United Kingdom economy and the forthcoming general election, are all likely to have an impact on cereal and protein prices.
Price gap narrows
As world pigmeat prices start to converge, the European market, with its 45p tariff on third country imports, will be starting to look less attractive to United States exporters, such as Smithfield. Exchange rates play a pivotal role in determining relative prices. The dollar has strengthened against the euro this year, and this in turn has narrowed the gap between United States and European pigmeat prices.
Anaerobic digestion workshop at Pig Fair
BPEX’s Nigel Penlington and pig producer James Hart will host a British Pig and Poultry Fair workshop on the practical aspects and benefits of installing an anaerobic digester.
Nigel Penlington will look at the different systems available to pig and poultry producers in Britain and where they can seek advice on installing a system on their own units.
“There’s a lot more to gain than simply a supply of electricity — such as the new Feed-in tariffs offered by the National Grid and by-products from the digestion process, and I will outline these,” he said. “I will also make visitors aware of the possible pitfalls and difficulties of installing a system.”
In a joint venture with a neighbouring poultry producer James Hart, who has a 400-sow pig unit in Gloucestershire, is installing an anaerobic digestor. He will outline the reasons for this move and how they sought planning permission and grants, plus some of the barriers they have had to overcome.
Electricity from this joint venture will be used on both units and surplus can be sold in to the National Grid.
James Hart will talk about additional benefits they hope to achieve such as the use of surplus heat from generating the electricity and the high value digestate that can form a valuable fertiliser for the arable land. He will discuss the cost benefits of the project and the self-sufficiency in power that it should afford the two partners.
The Anaerobic Digestion workshop will take place at 2.30pm on both days of the Fair in the seminar room between Exhibition Halls 1 and 2.
Danish imports splutter rather than sizzle
United Kingdom pig slaughterings increased 4 percent in February, compared to February last year. They were up 4 percent in England and Wales, and 15 percent in Northern ireland, but down 10 percent in Scotland.
During the first two months of this year clean pig slaughterings are up 5 percent to 1.6 million. Sow slaughterings are slightly higher too.
During January, Danish imports halved compared with January 2009. Holland and Ireland increased their shipments by over 50 percent.
Change in waste exemption rules
On Tuesday, April 6, new regulations waste exemption rules come into force. Under the new system, waste exemptions will be designed to cover only simple, low-risk activities generally involving small tonnages and thresholds.
The existing two-tier system of Simple Exemptions and Complex/Notifiable Exemptions will be scrapped.
Existing exemptions. Those holding existing exemptions will eventually have to transfer to the new system. This can be done any time after April 6 but does not need to be done immediately as existing exemptions will remain valid for a further three years. The cut-off date is September 2013.
New exemptions. Those who do not currently hold an exemption for an activity, and decide they need one, will register new-look exemptions directly on the new system. This will mean that in some cases, between now and the cut off date of 2013, farmers may hold a combination of old and new exemptions.
Complex/Notifiable exemptions. Some farm businesses will be holding Complex Exemptions involving non-agricultural waste. These are exemptions which require the submission of more detailed information and payment of a fee to the Environment Agency, and they tend to need renewing each year. The common ones are for commercial composting, land-spreading of waste material, and use of waste materials in construction.
Other points of interest. Most of the existing exemptions that cover common, every-day farming activities, such as use of tyres on a silage clamp and use of waste material as bedding, will be included in the new-look exemptions. Most of the conditions attached to the specific exemptions will remain the same, including for the spreading of pig and poultry carcass ash.
Re-registration and charging. Once farmers have moved to the new system they will have to re-register their exemptions with the Environment Agency every three years. Exemptions will be free of charge. Government had initially proposed plans where farms would be charged £50 each time farmers registered their exemptions but vigorous NFU lobbying resulted in the charges being dropped.
• The above note is taken from an NFU briefing paper. For further information see this Environment Agency factsheet and the Environment Agency website.
Slurry storage deadline could be an opportunity
Many farmers are going to have to build new slurry tanks and pits to comply with the NVZ 2012 deadline and this may provide a biogas opportunity, according to Lord Redesdale, chairman of the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association.
“I have been talking to a lot of financiers over the past few weeks to see if they would see this as a viable financial product, paying for the gas being produced which would offset the cost of a new pit or tank,” he told a conference at Reaseheath College, Nantwich.
“You could even see your slurry pit being a financial asset rather than a financial liability, which would be nice,” he said.
Historically biogas had not been important because of cheap North Sea gas, he told the conference.
“Although anaerobic digestion is used widely in Germany and Denmark, in the United Kingdom it is currently seen as a novel technology by financiers.
“They do see biogas as profitable but current financial incentives are influencing the industry to generate electricity rather than gas.
"For many businesses this is a great thing and it works in certain areas, but the size of the feedstocks streams needed will limit the number of plants.
“The government is very interested in subsidising biogas production. The trouble is that you have different departments coming up with different targets.”
Don't legislate on mycotoxins, says compounders
The imposition of maximum limits on the presence of mycotoxins in feed could cause shortages of animal feed in some years, warn European farmers and feed compounders.
Noting the European Commission health and consumer department is considering regulating on mycotoxins in feeds, farmers organisation Copa-Cogeca and the European Feed Manufacturers' Federation have urged caution.
Experience over the last six years has proved how difficult it is to control the development of fusarium toxins, they say.
“Any stricter risk management measure such as maximum limits might therefore expose the feed chain to risks of shortage of feed materials in cases of a combination of low yields and relatively high mycotoxins prevalence.
“This could also have knock-on effects on the food sector itself as well. On the other hand, we cannot anticipate any direct benefit for animal health.”
They say the correct way to proceed is to maintain the current combination of monitoring for mycotoxins, and taking corrective action where guidance values are exceeded.
“This enables a proper management of the risk, in particular a prevention of long term exposure of animals to highly contaminated feed.”
Environmental challenges when applying for planning permission
One of the workshops at this year’s British Pig and Poultry Fair will look at the environmental challenges involved in planning applications.
Brian Barrow, managing director of chartered surveyors and planning consultants Acorus, will discuss environmental factors that face producers — particularly IPPC producers — when they are preparing planning documents.
“Environmental issues are a far more important part of planning now than they were ten years ago,” he says. “It is unwise to go through all the hurdles of planning and then fail because a key environmental issue have been overlooked.”
He will highlight the ecology on-site that must be taken into account - such as nesting birds and bats - and what action has to be taken in such cases; also any issues of run-off water into streams.
Looking further afield, he will draw visitors’ attention to off-site environmental issues such as transport, traffic, noise and dust production.
“We have to consider odour production and the impact of emissions from the site. It is possible that ammonia from say a poultry unit could ‘fertilise’ a site 1km away and if this is a Site of Special Scientific Interest then there are implications.”
He will outline help that is available when preparing plans, such as ammonia emission models. He will also talk about Environmental Impact Assessments that should identify any issues that could have an impact on planning permission.
“This assessment is required on planning applications above defined sizes of units and it should show up any environmental issues that may affect planning. It is worth considering even with plans for smaller units.”
Also related to size of unit is the requirement for a renewable energy source as part of scheme. He will introduce the audience to these plans, which are just filtering through to local authorities.
“The key point I hope to get across to visitors is the importance of casting an environmental eye across the site being considered for planning and to do this at an early stage so that unnecessary costs are avoided and likely requirements are taken account of.”
The Environmental Challenges for Obtaining Planning Permission workshop will take on both days at 11.30am in the seminar room between Exhibition Halls 1 and 2.
Saturday April 3, 2010
Helen's Nuffield blog
Helen's Nuffield blog has been updated again.
Outlook 2010
The outlook for the red meat sector in 2010 and 2011 will be debated by industry experts at "Outlook 2010, A Changing Climate?", jointly hosted by BPEX and EBLEX on Wednesday, April 14, at One Great George Street, Westminster. Cost for the one-day conference, which includes lunch, is £200 plus VAT.
Reservations: jacqui.emery@ahdb.org.uk.
Thursday April 1, 2010
A new government will mean fewer inspections
The Conservatives’ agenda for British agriculture, ‘A New Age of Agriculture‘ includes much that will be welcomed by pig-keepers.
Key among these is a promise to ensure membership of a recognised farm assurance scheme results in fewer inspections by the state.
There is also a promise to do better than Labour on labelling.
For reasons that are difficult to understand, the Labour government has been resolutely opposed to mandatory country-of-origin labelling.
Its stance has consigned British pig-keepers to ten years of losses in the face of misleadingly labelled lower-welfare imports.
The Conservatives have promised to support Europe's proposed place-of-farming law. They say they will legislate unilaterally if necessary.
On regulation, they claim the United Kingdom government has earned a reputation for being one of the most heavy-handed in Europe when it comes to implementing European Union farming legislation.
In "A New Age of Agriculture" they argue that as long as the desired outcomes are achieved it is best to leave methods used to the professional judgement of farmers.
Of particular interest to pig-keepers is their promise to allow farmers to apply for Rural Development Programme grants to help meet the cost of European Union legislation, such as IPPC and the Nitrates Directive.
In a bid to make the Rural Payments Agency less of a disaster zone, they will appoint their minister for farming to the Agency’s management board, as chairman.
Like Labour, the Conservatives are CAP-sceptic and will press for a shift of resources across Europe to the rural development programme, and for a fair share of that programme for the United Kingdom.
Some pig-keepers may be worried about a new "independent" animal health quango. They will take comfort from the fact that a Conservative administration will develop a health and cost-sharing strategy in partnership with farmers and veterinarians. This will provide an opportunity for a new look at current plans.
Pig Discussion Groups
Contact details for Pig Discussion Groups — those that have sent details — are on the Contacts page. If your group's details are here, are they up to date please? If your group is not included, you are invited to email details, if you wish to be included.
In search of the brightest of bright ideas...
Deadline for entering the ABN Innovation Award is Friday, April 9. Aimed at under-35s, the award offers £1,000 for the best idea for marketing British pigmeat, poultry-meat, or eggs. It is part of this year’s British Pig and Poultry Fair, 11 and 12 May. Entrants may send their concept in any format receivable by post or email. Entries will be reviewed by a judging panel and successful finalists will present their concept to a panel of judges. Finalists will be invited to attend the ABN industry dinner at the Fair on May 11, and the winner will be announced the following day. More information.
New Product Award
BRITISH PIG AND POULTRY FAIR
Some cracking entries are arriving for the British Pig and Poultry Fair New Products Award. You may fill in and email an electronic entry form or, if you prefer, email or phone Pig World and a form will be posted to you. The competition is run by Pig World and the Royal Agricultural Society of England. This year's judge — and given the standard and diversity of entry so far, you really wouldn't want to be in his shoes — is producer Phil Stephenson.
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Innovation Award