CHRIS BRANT AWARD 2010
Who do YOU know who goes the extra mile for our industry? Make your nomination here.

Friday February 19, 2010

English pig industry launches
real welfare for pigs

The English pig industry will start to take ownership of the European pig welfare debate this year as it rolls out a radical programme based on real animal welfare — from the perspective of the pigs themselves.

It will help professional English pig-keepers debunk the claims of the increasingly vocal minority who prowl corridors of power condemning all modern pig production methods.

And it will provide science-based data to demonstrate the welfare credentials of producers’ own units. Initially the programme will be voluntary but in due course it could become part of the industry’s two independently-audited assurance schemes.

It will concentrate on real welfare instead of the perceived welfare more commonly cited by vegetarian and welfarist groups.

STOCKMANSHIP

“At heart, we are all stockmen first and businessmen second, and this 'welfare-outcomes' programme will give us the tools to demonstrate our professionalism as stockmen and stockwomen, and at the same time it will be good for business,” said BPEX chairman Stewart Houston this morning.

“The English pig industry has set its stall out to improve performance by outcomes rather than processes, and that includes both the welfare and environmental aspects of our business.

“For instance, currently farm assurance is process-driven. It involves ticking a lot of boxes and that doesn’t really tell us too much about pig welfare.

“In contrast, this new programme is going to concentrate on the welfare-outcome of the way we keep our pigs, whether that be outside, on straw or on slats.”

Specialist pig vets will be trained to carry out ‘welfare outcome’ audits of pig farms, applying scores for tail and body lesions, lameness and several other meaningful empirical welfare indicators.

IMPROVING WELFARE

The results will be benchmarked so pig-keepers are able to compare their husbandry and take the necessary actions to improve welfare.

The real-welfare programme will see English pig-keepers take a step forward in their welfare standards, confirming their leading position in Europe as producers of premium-quality pork and pork products, worthy of a premium price.

Importantly the programme will give indoor producers the tools they have demanded for some time to show that on well-run units slats can be as welfare-friendly as straw.

And it will help all pig-keepers demonstrate when tail-docking is essential in the interests of good welfare, and when the manipulable material they supply is effective as environmental enrichment.

Being able to produce evidence-based information will be particularly important to pig-keepers in the months ahead as Defra threatens a five percent cut in Single Farm Payment every time Rural Payment Agency inspectors find ‘routine’ tail-docking and inadequate environmental enrichment.

UNDERPINNED BY RESEARCH

The programme, which is being described as “Welfare Outcomes” by BPEX, is a BPEX initiative underpinned by research carried out by University of Bristol.

It is the result of a considerable ongoing investment of levy-payers’ money. The target is to get some 80 percent of the English industry taking part in two-hour 'welfare-outcome' audits, carried out by specially trained pig vets.

In the fullness of time the trail-blazing English initiative may join with the more complex but less advanced European Welfare Quality Project (see Science proves the critics wrong on welfare, February Pig World).

The immediate target is to persuade the owners of around 400 pig units to take part in an evaluation study, the farm types being spilt four ways, between indoor and outdoor sows, and straw and slatted finishers.

The aim of the project is to get away from facile straw-versus-slats labels currently employed by animal welfare groups, the politicians they successfully lobby, and retailers.

INDOOR UNITS

By concentrating on ‘welfare outcomes’ and benchmarking the results, it should be possible to demonstrate that intensive indoor pig production systems have the capacity to be as welfare-friendly as outdoor systems.

BPEX started this project in order to take leadership of a welfare debate that increasingly is spiraling out of control as it becomes dominated by groups that are not necessarily well-informed about pig welfare but which do have access to United Kingdom and European legislators.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the project are as follows:

• To use scientific principles to develop welfare policy.
  
  
• To generate credible 'welfare-outcome' benchmarks for the English pig industry for both breeding and feeding herds.
  
  
• To evaluate the robustness of data across seasonal variation etc by repeat assessments of sample farms.
  
  
• To produce advisory tools to promote the benefits to pig-keepers and the wider industry.
  
  
• To demonstrate that pig-keepers are good welfarists, rather than leaving them to be judged by the size and type of their unit.
  
  
• To consider future marketing opportunities resulting from robust welfare audits.

By setting science-based benchmarks and taking leadership of the increasingly vociferous welfare debate in Britain and across the continent, BPEX hopes to be able to work with pig-keepers, processors, retailers and consumers to add value to pigmeat from participating farms.

OUTCOMES

BPEX envisages the following outcomes for English pig producers:

• The industry will no longer be on the back foot as far as welfare is concerned. Pig-keepers will be able to objectively demonstrate the real welfare status of their unit. They will be able to prove they are good welfarists, rather than being judged by animal welfare groups, regulators, retailers and others, simply on the size and type of their unit.
  
  
• The industry will be able to use sound scientific principles and on-farm objective measurements to overcome current outdoor-good-versus-indoor-bad perception.
  
  
• The welfare-outcome project will be added to farm assurance, replacing other components.
  
  
• New marketing opportunities, for instance ‘English Welfare Quality Pork’.
  
  
• A weapon to be used to fend off future non-science based legislation.
  
  
• Potential for better regulation through reduced inspections.

The project is at an advanced stage but still has a long way to go, as it enters the evaluation phase.

The parameters to be measured on farms have yet to be completely finalised and will be the subject of a meeting called by BPEX for April 1.

SECURING THE FUTURE

Although some pig-keepers may have reservations about the burden imposed, in due course, by an extended ‘welfare outcomes’ assurance audit, those who have been watching welfare pressures building on the European pig sector over the past 18 months (as regularly reported in Pig World) will view the BPEX initiative as timely and with the potential to secure the sustainability of the sector for several years ahead.

“I was initially nervous about this programme,” said BPEX chairman Stewart Houston. “But we have spent a lot of time checking it is robust, and that the outcomes can be replicated across successive audits.

“As we get nearer to 2013 we need to find ways of keeping in front of the welfare debate and this is the best way of making it happen — from a marketing point of view as well as a welfare perspective.”

Better for crops, better for the environment

(Part two of a plain English overview of anaerobic digestion opportunities on British pig farms)

By Nigel Penlington
 
Anaerobic digestion is a natural process that occurs in all organic matter that is allowed to become anaerobic, that is to say, has no oxygen in it.

In Britain, little is made of the fact that several water companies are already digesting sewage sludge to produce biomethane, which is a renewable natural gas made from organic material, which starts out as biogas but is then cleaned up, having impurities such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfides removed.

Biodigestion promotes bacterial action in a beneficial way. Methane — which is normally lost to the atmosphere — is trapped and used.

The digestion process destroys disease organisms, weed seeds (the degree depends on the process type and time) and transforms the principle plant nutrients of nitrogen, phosphate and potash into more readily accessible forms.

Thus the fertiliser value of a good digestate (digestate is the material remaining after the anaerobic digestion process) is higher than from unprocessed slurry.

This not only cuts farmers’ fertiliser bills, but results, if applied correctly, in low losses to the atmosphere and to groundwaters. 

As with composted manures, the lower weed burden reduces the need for mechanical or chemical weeding. So the fertiliser end product is a Good Thing, both agronomically and environmentally.

The anaerobic digestion process leaves the digestate with a different odour to raw slurry. It is often described as odourless. Don’t believe it... but it should be less pungent. The final odour will be influenced by the mix of raw materials digested.
 
Digestate lagoons and tanks should be covered because some residual digestion will occur, producing methane. Using a cover stops the release of methane, ammonia and odour. In western Europe digestate tanks are commonly covered with chopped straw.

Thursday February 18, 2010

NPA meets Environment Agency

Following a meeting it arranged between the Environment Agency and farms minister Jim Fitzpatrick recently, the NPA has now met senior staff from the Environment Agency to air producers' problems in getting IPPC permit variations in a timely manner. NPA general manager Barney Kay reports some potentially useful outcomes from the meeting and promises more information when details have been formalised. Barney Kay and Stewart Houston represented NPA, Nigel Penlington represented BPEX and Diane Mitchell represented NFU in today's meeting.

Why tail-biting is a bee-eff-eff nuisance

A study has identified three types of tail-biting situation:

• B for BOREDOM Two pigs lying together and one pig starts gradually nibbling. Keeping toys clean helps reduce boredom.
  
  
• F for FRUSTRATION Pigs queuing to feed nip tail, there is a bully effect, “something good to yank on”. And blocked or slow-flowing drinkers cause frustrated pigs. So maintain drinkers regularly and check flow-rates periodically.
  
  
• F for FANATICAL The tail-biting fanatics are generally the smallest pigs in the pen.

More in March Pig World.

More Freedom Food pigs

Pigs in RSPCA’s Freedom Food scheme have increased from 1.6m in 2008 to more than 1.9m last year and now account for 20 percent of United Kingdom production.

This news follows a recent consumer survey from IGD, the food and grocery research body, which found animal welfare standards have risen up the list of priorities for shoppers when choosing food and grocery products.

In January 2010, 19 percent of shoppers said animal welfare standards influenced their shopping decisions, compared with 10 percent in 2006. 

Stayin' alive

Two million piglets die every year in the United Kingdom. “That’s an awful lot of potential pigmeat,” said SAC’s Emma Baxter at a recent Lincolnshire BPEX workshop.

Maybe we ought to have the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” blasting out in all our farrowing houses, as a not-so-subtle reminder of this statistic.

Stillbirths and overlays are a big grey area, whereby there can be a temptation to record overlays as stillborns, effectively massaging pre-weaning mortality figures.

We are seeing a drive to increasing litter size - a good thing in many respects - but a downside is lower and more variable birthweights, with 1.6kg being the ideal birth weight for piglet survival. “Giants and runts need reducing,” said Dr Baxter. — Stuart Lumb. (More in March Pig World.)

At least a quarter is lower welfare

The Guardian newspaper has highlighted that at least a quarter of meat sold in Britain is not produced to British animal welfare standards, as the meat is imported.

Looking at the most recent complete trade figures available (for 2007) The Guardian reports:

• More than half the bacon sold in the United Kingdom comes from the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Italy, where most farmers still keep sows in stalls.
  
  
• Over 40 percent of other pork products come from Denmark, Germany the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
  
  
• One quarter of poultry comes from seven European countries and Brazil, which allow higher stocking of chickens and do not force farmers to use dry-bedding.
  
  
• Three percent of beef is imported from Brazil, where practices including hot branding, castration and dehorning of cattle can be carried out without anaesthetic.

Total imports of pork, poultry, beef and veal made up one third of all meat sales so it is likely that some of the remaining imports came from smaller trading countries also with lower standards, says The Grauniad.

More pain needed, say analysts

There will have to be yet more shrinkage of the United States and Canadian pig herds before the North American pig industry can return to profit.

"We need to stop the red ink and start turning profits, and the key to that is fewer hogs," said University of Missouri economist Ron Plain. "We need to be reducing herds all the way through 2010, but I worry that may not be the case.”

The combined United States and Canadian breeding herds have declined 7.1 percent from their October 2007 peak of 7.752m head. Analysts say that’s not a large enough dent to push pig prices to consistently profitable levels, given a 20-30 percent increase in costs.

Germany slaughters more pigs

There was a 2.5 percent rise in German meat production last year, compared to 2008. Pork takes the largest share, with 67.9 percent. Poultry meat is second, with 16.6 percent, and beef comes third with 15.2 percent.

The ever-growing slaughter figures for pigs reached a new high. With circa 56m pigs being slaughtered, Germany processed 1.5m more pigs than in 2008, a rise of 2.7 percent. The number of pigs imported for slaughter, mostly from Denmark, represented nearly ten percent of slaughterings.

Another African swine fever outbreak

The Organization for Animal Health has reported another case of African swine fever in Russia, this time in the Krasnodar region, in the south-east of Russia. In total 3,851 animals were involved. Among them 77 were infected, fell ill and died (2 percent) and the rest (3,774) were culled.

Double insult

Giving an anaesthetic injection when castrating pigs — as opposed to giving only a pain-killer — may influence a piglet's position at the sow’s teats, due to reduced coordination, according to a German university study. In the study, the behaviour and hierarchy at the teats were compared, three hours before anaesthetic castration using injections, and three hours afterwards.

State aids not appropriate

The European Union must have the necessary tools for stabilising markets and to deal with price volatility, argues a Spanish presidency paper on market management instruments.

It favours the concept of income insurance, saying national state aids are not an “appropriate solution for dealing with serious crisis situations in the Community market”.

Citing International Monetary Fund figures, it says food price volatility increased circa 8 percent for the decade through 2007 to more than 22 percent since 2008.

Wednesday February 17, 2010

New freedom farrowing concept

THE FIRST PICTURES
(BY SAM WALTON, PIG WORLD)

The Midland Pig Producers freedom crate is in two halves. When the crate is opened after four days to create a freedom area, one half pivots to one side and the other half slides (using an overhead runner) to the opposite side of the pen.

The sow can be fastened in again, in a matter of seconds, if the piglets need to be handled. The system includes a creep area, which is behind the sow, or one can be added to the front as shown in the pictures above, and below.

Midland Pig Producers have a farrowing room with 20 of these crates in, with the first farrowings due to start today.

Results from early models of the freedom crate — which will be on the market in due course — show mortality at the same level as conventional crates, but weaners two kilos heavier, probably because the sow is more comfortable.

The pens are 1.6 metres wide and 2.4 metres long, these dimensions being chosen for easy fitting of the Mik Comfort slats in the centre.

The picture below shows how the sliding half of the crate is connected to an overhead runner, so sliding the crate to its full-open position is little more than a finger-tip operation. — D.S.

Don't get caught in the IPPC trap

Producers who house dry sows in tents or arks on a hard standing — an airfield runway for instance — need to be careful they don’t get caught up in the IPPC regulations. Continued in Members Area.

Feast of Fiddles at Lincoln

The piggy party for Feast of Fiddles at Lincoln has now almost filled three rows, and that's before we have even started trying. Even Mr and Mrs NPA Chairman, CBE, are making the trip through border control from Yorkshire, along with Mr Grumpy and Mrs Much Nicer. If you want to join the party it might be a good idea to get in touch sooner rather than later. More details about Feast of Fiddles at Lincoln.

Tuesday February 16, 2010

Gilt management

BPEX is holding a gilt management workshop on Wednesday March 17, 6.30pm to 8.30pm at York Racecourse, YO23 1EX. Dr Paul Hughes from the South Australian Research and Development Institute will talk about new gilt management policies for optimum production. Vet Henrike Jäger, from the Garth Partnership, will present case studies and discuss common gilt management problems and solutions seen on British farms. There will be mini-sessions with an opportunity to ask questions of each of the speakers. The workshop is open to everyone and is free to attend. A hot buffet will be served afterwards. The workshop is PIPR registered. To register contact Lis Ravn, 07891 65 6784, lisbeth.ravn@bpex.org.uk.

Pig unit ventilation

A DVD on ventilation will be released by BPEX next month. Copies will be available after mid-March from kt@bpex.org.uk, 02476 478793, and at the BPEX Back to the Future producer conference on Tuesday 16 March at Peterborough.

Monday February 15, 2010

New chief for levy board

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust chief executive Tom Taylor has been appointed chief executive of Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, to provide “strategic leadership”. He will replace Kevin Roberts who leaves to become director general of the NFU in April.

BPEX chairman Stewart Houston said there had been some strong candidates for the post from the farming industry.

"But Tom Taylor's skills are exactly what we need — someone to get the new building up at Stoneleigh, to get the staff moved in, and to get everyone functioning as efficiently as possible.

"He has a track record of doing this sort of thing at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust — which is acknowledged as one of the better performing Trusts — and this is where his strengths are.

"And if you think about the politics involved in NHS management, he should find the farming industry relatively straight-forward!"

Saturday February 13, 2010

ABN Innovation Award

ABN and the Royal Agricultural Society of England are introducing an important marketing award at this year’s British Pig and Poultry Fair, with £1,000 in prize money.

The challenge to the next generation of pig and poultry entrepreneurs (aged under 35 years) is to come up with a creative concept for marketing British pig or poultry products.

The winner will be announced on day two of British Pig and Poultry Fair — Wednesday May 12. Can we make sure the pig sector wins this award? Of course we can. ABN Innovation Award.

You don't have to send flowers afterwards...

The new Red Tractor logos for pork, bacon and ham will be appearing in stores from April, when the industry’s much-loved Quality Standard Mark is discontinued. First out of the box will be Red Tractor Bacon. It will make its appearance during Bacon Connoisseurs’ Week, which runs Monday March 22 to Sunday March 28. Countdown to Bacon Connoisseurs' Week

Friday February 12, 2010

A change in tone

By Digby Scott

The latest nomination for the Chris Brant Award, received this morning, brings the total so far to ten. In previous years we have had 20 or so nominations, but there is plenty of time yet, so we may do again this year.

If you wish to nominate someone please go to the Chris Brant Award page, where you can do it on-line.

The judges haven’t seen the nominations that have come in so far, so they are blissfully unaware of the difficult task that faces them when they meet to make their decision in April.

The standard is higher than ever, demonstrating just how much sung, and unsung talent we have in our small industry, and long may it be so.

Interestingly, the ‘tone’ of entries has changed this year, as the sector moves from crisis mode, into its second year of sustainable prices.

You are placing less emphasis on in-your-face campaigning, and more on people who have made a contribution in other ways... by successful marketing for instance, and by driving higher productivity.

This award is run by and for the industry, so it is right the industry should be setting the pace in this way.

But there is a slight irony in the fact that the year we change the name of the award from the Pig Industry Service Award to the Chris Brant Award — in fond memory of the most in-yer-face campaigner imaginable — turns out to be the year that it shifts into a more reflective mode.