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Monday June 28, 2010

Derek Wells

Derek Wells (72), formerly of the Meat and Livestock Commission, died unexpectedly on Saturday, at West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds.

Derek was well thought of in the industry, and even after he had retired from MLC producers felt they could call him at home and seek his advice on pig-related matters.

Danes send more pigs to Germany

Danish pig producers are sending even more weaners to Germany this year. From January to April they exported more than 2.4m weaners, in search of better prices — an increase of five percent over the same period last year. Should this level be maintained through the rest of the year it will bring the total loss to Danish abattoirs in 2010 of 7.5m pigs. At 375,000, exports of slaughter pigs were slightly lower in the first four months of this year than for the same period last year.

'Place of farming' labelling will
take at least four years

Renate Sommer, the German Christian Democrat who guided plans for mandatory origin and nutrition labelling through the European Parliament, believes it will be at least four years before they become law.

Ministers have to approve the proposals and this is unlikely on the first reading, she said. "I think we will reach agreement, but there will be transition periods and I think that this legislation will come into force at the earliest in four years, which means in 2014.

"But food producers and retailers know what they will have to do and I can imagine that quite a lot of them will introduce the new rules earlier than they have to by law."

TVC report

Supply continued to improve as the number of pigs coming through the system that were affected by the cold New Year dwindled. Tulip and Woodheads both stood-on with their contract prices. The euro lost ground ending the week up at 82.36p – a loss of 1.21p on the week. TVC report.

Scotland wants a voice in Brussels

Farming and fishing is more important to the Scottish economy than they are in England, says Scotland's rural affairs spokesman Richard Lochhead. Rather than relying on Defra ministers to put the United Kingdom's case in Brussels, he wants Scotland to have its own voice. If this happened, English farmers would benefit too — as the case for United Kingdom agriculture would be put more strongly.

Medicated feed to be phased out

Dutch animal feed compounders say they will work with pig farmers and vets to phase out in-feed antibiotics as soon as possible. Although Dutch pigs have received less medicated feed in recent years, there is still a risk of healthy pigs eating the feed, which ultimately could contribute to antibiotic resistance in humans.

Too suffocating

Over 90 percent of pig producers surveyed say Germany's pork assurance scheme 'Quality and Safety' is too suffocating. Producers are particularly irritated by tghe continuous adding of new criteria, some of which goes further than national legislation.

Unicorn meat

The United States National Pork Board has made itself look rather humourless, by taking umbrage at an April Fool's joke which referred to canned unicorn as "the new white meat".

Despite the fact that unicorn meat is a rare commodity — in Britain only Waitrose stocks it — the National Pork Board fired off a 12-page warning to website Think Geek for claiming "Pâté is passé. Unicorn is the the new white meat".

"Yes, it's funny. But if you don't respond, you are opening your trademark up to challenges," said a National Pork Board spokesman.

The website in question has apologised and said it never intended to cause a national crisis.

Scotland hopes to go it
alone on animal health

Scotland may take control of its own animal health budget from April next year, but it is not a done deal yet. Rural affairs spokesman Richard Lochhead says he will be working closely with Defra to put together a detailed proposal.

Livestock producers in England will, in due course, be required to meet the cost of Defra's £20m animal health budget, including the cost of clearing up future outbreaks of notifiable disease. If Scotland succeeds in its bid for devolution of the animal health budget, it will probably place a lower cost burden on Scottish farmers.

friday june 25, 2010

Pig prices ease as euro weakens

With no 'R' in the month, strawberries and Wimbledon used to be more of a problem for pig sellers before fridges were invented. But in modern times this has proved to be much less of a challenge. Traffic Lights commentary continued.

thursday June 24, 2010

Double standards

In a first meeting today with the new European Union trade commissioner, Karel De Gucht, Copa president Padraig Walshe warned, "The Commission cannot go on asking European Union producers to meet costly regulations and then turn round and say we'd rather import cheaper food regardless of how it is produced".

IPPC thresholds

Pig producers with 200 sows or more may have to get used to the idea of applying for an IPPC permit after all.

Lobbying by NFU and NPA, supported by Defra, has helped prevent the current revision of IPPC from including lower thresholds for pigs. But thresholds will be scrutinised again by the end of next year.

This measure was agreed in three-way negotiations between the European Commission, Council and Parliament this week, and will be voted on by the European Parliament next month.

The three-way negotiations also agreed to review, in 2012, whether to bring cattle and manure spreading into IPPC.

The environment department had wanted all these extensions included in the current revision of IPPC but failed, following lobbying by farmer organisations.

By getting agreement to review these issues at an early date, Brussels is signalling, as so often in the past, that it rarely accepts defeat of its plans as final.

Current IPPC threshold is 750 indoor sows or more than 2,000 indoor finisher places for pigs of 30kg or more.

Some existing IPPC permit holders in Britain would welcome the threshold being reduced. They are producing pigs at a disadvantage because of the high cost of getting and keeping an IPPC permit.

Cheap meat threat to grain prices

European cereal growers are concerned that cheap beef, pigmeat and poultrymeat from South America will hit their wheat and barley prices.

"With 60 percent of cereals dedicated to feed for the European Union livestock sector, any concessions given by the European Union to open markets to meat imports from Mercosur countries will badly affect the European Union cereals market balance," warned Paul Temple, chairman of Copa's cereals committee, yesterday.

Copa sees European Union cereal production being down 1.3 percent this year at 286m tonnes. Barley will experience the biggest drop (-7.4 percent), largely because it is no longer eligible for automatic intervention storage. Soft wheat production is estimated to increase 3.3 percent. Copa forecast.

wednesday june 23, 2010

Pig industry promises to play
its part in cutting national debt

The English pig industry promised today to respond to the Prime Minister's call to help cut the national debt. It has formed a high-level working group which will embrace producers, feed compounders, processors and many others to pinpoint ways to eliminate waste in the national pigmeat supply chain. Full report in July issue of Pig World.

Advertising ban

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate is planning to ban the advertising of antimicrobials to farmers. This may trigger an increase in the cover price of Pig World.

The National Office of Animal Health, which represents the United Kingdom animal medicines industry, doubts the ban will reduce antibiotic resistance profiles.

"We must ensure this proposed ban does not impinge on providing farmers with essential information relating to the health and welfare of their animals," it says.

An awful lot of soya in Brazil

The chart above of the main agricultural imports to the European Union 27, emphasises the importance of Brazil's soya crop to the prosperity, or otherwise, of the European livestock industry.

The soya market is highly concentrated with nearly 100 percent of European Union imports coming from the key suppliers Argentina and Brazil for meal, and Brazil and the United States for soybeans.

Firm prices from start to finish

Peter Crichton reports good attendance at his auction of outdoor pig equipment conducted on behalf of Trevor Thain at Ipswich on June 19.

As well as a good following of local buyers, others attended from as far a field as Scotland, Yorkshire and the West Country with firm prices from start to finish and every item of outdoor pig equipment was sold.

The auction included a useful selection of farrowing huts built by Baker Engineering Ltd which, with fenders included, fetched plenty of competition and sold within a narrow price range of £250-£270 each.

80 Baker Engineering sow/weaner barns also met plenty of enquiry with a top price of £660 and with a large selection between £600 and £490 (flat packed) and erected barns from £440 down to £260 with only older types selling at less than this.

Dry sow tents met plenty of competition selling up to £300 each with others to £280 each and spare canvasses selling at up to £190 each. Drinking troughs and wallows met a ready enquiry selling between £30–£40. A Morgan 16ft x 14ft AI tent made £1,200 and a weaner tent £520.

A large number of rearer/finisher hoppers saw heavy steel 1 tonne capacity types making up to £280 each with the majority £200-£260. Plastic grower hoppers met a ready enquiry to sell between £38-£62 each and steel rearer/finisher drinker tanks between £50-£70. Steel ad-lib outdoor sow hoppers averaged £180.

A useful selection of outdoor pig machinery and equipment saw fore-loader piglet weaning boxes selling to £420, a 24 tonne bulk bin £3,300 and a William White incinerator £1,750.

Other machinery met plenty of enquiry with a 1 tonne Rotafeeder realising £3,400, spare box for Rotafeeder £400, a Rowlands auger feed trailer £4,600, Shelbourne straw machine £1,800, 1,000 gallon bowser £1,500, weaning trailer £700 and miscellaneous items also clearing readily.

tuesday june 22, 2010

English pork in Dubai

English pork is now on sale in supermarkets in Dubai and is labelled as such. Buyers say they are very happy with the quality of the product and want to use
more. There are also opportunities in the region for English bacon and sausages. Supermarkets sell pork in special non-Muslin sections of their stores, to meet the needs of the large expatriate community.

Danish abattoir closes, again

A failed Danish abattoir which reopened only a few months ago, with backing from Midland Bacon Company, of Walsall, has closed again, defeated by recent increases in the Danish pig price.

The abattoir had been in operation for just ten weeks. According to the Danish Meat Company the price it had to pay for pigs was too high, adding an unforseen extra £1,000 to weekly costs. The extra expense was too much for its British backer.

Emergency budget

After April 2012 the plant and machinery annual investment allowance will fall to £25,000.

monday june 21, 2010

Marketplace

Demand from World Cup themed parties continues to be good, reports Thames Valley Cambac. But as we enter 'strawberry fortnight' an issue for one large processor is too many loins and not enough legs. Report.

saturday june 19, 2010

Eleanor's ammo could help
end 'Nutters' Charter'

By Digby Scott

An opinion delivered this week by the United Kingdom's Eleanor Sharpston could bring profound relief to farmers who value their privacy.

Eleanor Sharpston QC, once an advocate at Judicial Review for the British Pig Industry Support Group, is now Advocate General of the European Court of Justice.

She says a person applying for funding from a public body such as the European Union "cannot be required, solely as a condition of obtaining that funding, to forgo a fundamental right from which he would otherwise derive protection".

And she raises the whole question of whether the European Union should be allowed to override the individual's right to respect for his private life and personal data.

Eleanor Sharpston's opinion could give grounds to British pig farmers to challenge the rule that says details of all IPPC members must be made available to the public.

This IPPC ruling has become known as "The Nutters' Charter" because it makes it easy for animal rights activists to build a hit-list of intensive pig and poultry farms.

In her opinion Eleanor Sharpston says publication of details of individual beneficiaries of the CAP budget clearly interferes with the applicants' rights both to privacy and to the protection of personal data.

She questions the validity of European Union legislation, which requires the disclosure of the amounts awarded to farmers, including their names, municipality of residence and postcode.

Eleanor Sharpston says the availability of such information raises important constitutional issues within European Union law as to whether achieving transparency in the management of the CAP finance may in principle override the individual's right to respect for his private life and personal data.

She favours the use of some form of data aggregation to enable members of the public to understand where money is currently being spent.

The application form for drawing CAP funds "does not make it unambiguously clear that an applicant is consenting to publication of his name, municipality of residence and the amounts awarded to him."

She says a person applying for funding from a public body such as the European Union "cannot be required, solely as a condition of obtaining that funding, to forgo a fundamental right from which he would otherwise derive protection".

The Brussels agriculture department says it has taken note of her opinion and will await the final judgement, due in the autumn.

• Eleanor Sharpston QC appeared for British Pig Industry Support Group when it took government to Judicial Review in 2000, claiming £200m because government failed to provide aid to the industry following the BSE crisis. Unlike beef and sheep farmers, pig producers had to meet all the costs of new BSE regulations. BPISG alleged at Judicial Review that agriculture minister Nick Brown was "unlawfully discriminating" against them. At the start of a two-day hearing, Eleanor Sharpston told Mr Justice Richards that government had proposed an aid package to the European Commission offering pig farmers up to £26m in the first year, and £20m in each of the two subsequent years. She said, "The pig industry has sustained, since BSE, losses of some £266m - and continuing. I say that is a failure to act adequately." Extra costs arising from the BSE crisis amounted to £5.26 extra per pig, although BSE had nothing to do with pigmeat.

friday june 18,2010

A margin for everyone

TRAFFIC LIGHTS COMMENTARY

A firm demand for all categories of pigs, although no fireworks, with prices at sustainable levels for producers and hopefully also allowing enough of a margin for processors to keep in the black as well.

The DAPP continues to nudge ahead and put on another 0.66p to stand at 146.82p.

A year ago spot prices and the DAPP peaked in late June, but then went into a fairly steady decline right through to the autumn.

Signs are emerging that this year although we have not hit the heights seen in 2009 supply and demand are in better balance, which should (hopefully) mean we avoid last year's roller coaster ride and for those of you familiar with these devices, they always end up lower than where they start! Traffic Lights commentary continued.

Computer game might prevent boredom

Researchers from Wageningen University in Holland wonder whether a computer game for pigs could improve welfare. They haven't worked out how pigs could operate a computer. At this early stage they are asking farmers to brainstorm the possibility that it could prevent boredom in pigs.

Irish farmers get grants to convert

Irish agriculture minister Brendan Smith yesterday announced a grant aid scheme to help pig farmers convert to loose housing to comply with European law from 2013.

Grant-aid will be available at a standard rate of 40 percent for investment in sow housing. The scheme is now open. Applications will be accepted up to the end of June 2010.

The English Rural Development Programme does not take advantage of 'Measure 131' which allows support to help farmers meet European Union standards.

thursday june 17, 2010

Rural development still essential

By Digby Scott

To counter abandonment of land, ensure the survival of European Union agriculture and promote green growth, rural development must remain an essential aim of the future Common Agriculture Policy and the current two-pillar structure (production support and rural development) should be maintained, says the European Parliament agriculture committee.

Agriculture urgently needs to attract young farmers and women, adds the committee, suggesting that this could be achieved through favourable loans for investment to meet high start-up costs and overcome difficulties in accessing credit.

In broad terms, MEPs support the continuation of the 2-pillar structure of the Common Agriculture Policy, insist on the need for a shift away from historic to area-based payments and for more consideration to be given to farmers' efforts to cut carbon emissions within direct payments.

This last point, which indicates that CAP could penalise high carbon emitters, highlights the importance of British farmers starting now to understand how they can reduce emissions. See the C Plan Calculator.

On food imports from third countries, MEPs demanded they "meet the same requirements", while calling for the strengthening of the European Union's food quality system of Geographical Indications.

Further demands on the Commission include the strengthening of producers' bargaining power in the food supply chain, and improved price transparency.