friday may 28, 2010

From this week's Spectator.

Traffic Lights: prices continue to rise

The outlook for sellers remains positive and this was underlined by a further rise in the DAPP, which improved again this week and now stands at 145.46p.

The Tulip base price also moved up by a penny to 147p and the spot market reflected this with a positive stand-on feel to the trade, despite the euro remaining under pressure and closing on Friday worth 85.4p.

Despite the short week ahead several of the major players will be operating on Bank Holiday Monday and hence the so called short week had very little effect, which is often not the case. Traffic Lights commentary continued.

Absolute honesty needed in the labelling of pork products

A call for more honesty in the marketing of pork and bacon, to safeguard the on-farm progress made in pig welfare, has been made by Nigel Woolfenden, the new president of Pig Veterinary Society.

Nigel, a partner in the Bishopton Veterinary Group, Ripon, North Yorkshire, takes over from Wiltshire vet Peter Bown. New vice-president is Mike Wijnberg of Tulip Ltd.

"Transparency in the methods of farming should be obvious to all purchasers of pork products and requires honest labelling. Lack of transparency will undermine the impetus for further improvements in pig welfare. The labelling of products such as 'Cumberland' sausage when they contain imported pork has been misleading," he said.

"United Kingdom farm assured welfare standards are amongst the highest in the world, which is denoted by the Red Tractor logo on pork, ham and bacon.

"The United Kingdom has led the rest of the European Union in sow welfare for over a decade and thus the voluntary adoption by the major supermarkets of a new code of practice is welcome.

"The code will give consumers confidence in the provenance of the pork in their purchases, and in turn consumer support will give United Kingdom pig farms the backing they need to invest in even higher pig health and welfare standards."

His view is shared by other vets and welfare organisations. When the recent forum of the Animal Welfare Foundation of the British Veterinary Association voted on the issues they wanted the new Defra team to focus on, the need for consumers to be given impartial information through correct labelling of meat products came in the top three priorities.

"All buyers of meat have influence on the welfare standards of livestock farms through the purchasing decisions they make. I would ask all consumers, including the United Kingdom government — which is a major purchaser of food via hospitals, schools, and prisons — to support welfare through the pig products they purchase."

Nigel qualified with honours from Liverpool University and first specialised in pig medicine 15 years ago. He is a member of the three-vet specialist pig division within the 15-vet mixed practice, Bishopton Veterinary Group. His specific interests are preventive medicine, training pig farmers and managing health to optimise growth. He is a past president of the Yorkshire Veterinary Society.

He is active in NPA and has been one of the driving forces behind Yorkshire and Humberside Health.

Peter Kendall elected Copa food chain chairman

NFU president Peter Kendall has been elected chairman of the Copa food chain working group.

"It is the vital importance of this issue to British and European farmers that led me to put my name forward for this post," he said.

"It is crucial, firstly because we all work in a single European market and measures to make the food chain work more effectively and fairly cannot be taken on a national basis alone.

"Second, improvements in the food chain are an essential adjunct to further reform of the Common Agriculture Policy. We all want farmers to gain more of their returns from the market but this can only happen if the market works properly and risks and rewards are shared fairly."

thursday may 27, 2010

Elanco and Pfizer

The European Commission has a proposed acquisition of the animal health assets of Pfizer, by Eli Liily and Co, which owns Elanco Animal Health.

Honest labelling code goes live on Tuesday

The pork labelling website Pork Provenance goes live on June 1, when it will identify all the organisations that have signed up to the industry's code of practice for the labelling of pork and pork products.

The BPEX site is designed to provide industry and consumers alike with a reference point to enable them to see those companies that are committed to providing customers with clear information about the pork products they sell.

"Whereas current legislation allows for products such as bacon, ham and sausages that have been further processed in the United Kingdom to be labelled 'Produced in the UK', the new code of practice for the labelling of pork and pork products deems this to be ambiguous. Indeed, one of the main aims of the code is to ensure that the country of origin is clearly displayed on pack or at the point-of-purchase in foodservice outlets," said BPEX director Mick Sloyan.

The code will also ensure clarity where geographical terms such as "Wiltshire Cured" are used. This will now mean that the pork used to produced such products is of United Kingdom origin, and if not the country of origin will be clearly displayed

The code also defines minimum requirements for production terms used on retail labels and on menus such as Free Range, Outdoor Bred and Outdoor Reared.

"As a voluntary initiative, the code will be self-policing, but by openly listing supporters on the website, we are confident that all those companies that sign-up will be fully compliant," said Mick Sloyan.

"Our research shows that many retailers and foodservice companies already have good labelling. However some changes to packaging and menus may be necessary and so supporters of the code will have until the end of the year to be fully compliant. We plan to carry out a review of good labelling practice at the end of 2010 and this will be published widely," said Mick Sloyan.

Outdoor production definitions

The NPA members-only area has been updated today.

Beginnings of a lard revolution

From the Wall Street Journal

Mmmm, lard. That was the focus of dozens of the city's top chefs and foodies at Prime Meats in Brooklyn the other night. The pitch: Mangalitsa, a Hungarian breed of curly-haired hog with an oh-so fatty taste.

"This is the beginning of a lard-type fat revolution in this country," proclaimed Heath Putnam, owner of Wooly Pigs in Washington, the country's first importer of Mangalitsa pigs, which they now raise and sell.

George Faison, co-owner of DeBragga & Spitler, a butcher that placed a 1,000-pound shipment of the pricey pork Wednesday, pointed to a picture of a hog and its babies. "You let the animals live a little more like the way they're supposed to live," said Mr. Faison, minutes before the pigs ended up as succulent pieces of quickly devoured pork.

The hogs went over well with the likes of Tom Colicchio, April Bloomfield, chef at The Spotted Pig and Bradford Thompson, formerly of The Lever House who's gearing up to open a Jamaican restaurant this summer. There was maple sugar seared confit of Mangalitsa pork, dry cured Mangalitsa and shortbread cookies made from Mangalitsa lard.

"Tom Colicchio loved the cookie," said Mr. Putnam. "There's a whole lot of people who were there who want to use it."

Mr. Faison confirmed he delivered six neck rolls to Colicchio and Sons on Wednesday and expects the 1,000 pounds he ordered to sell quickly, despite the price tag of up to $9.50 (£6.50) a pound, depending on the cut.

tuesday may 25, 2010

Bovine TB found in wild boar

Bovine tuberculosis has been found in a female wild boar in England. Previously, studies by the Food and Environment Research Agency and Veterinary Laboratories Agency have isolated the same mycobacterium bovis (the causative agent of bovine tuberculosis) spoligotype from fallow deer, fox, wood mouse and polecat within an ten mile radius of the wild boar's location in the south-west.

Cranswick profits up 26 percent

Cranswick has reported a 26 percent rise in profits. "The past year has seen increased expenditure by the consumer on products such as air-dried bacon, premium sausages, fresh pork and ham and this looks set to continue," said chairman Martin Davey.

Cranswick's pre-tax profits rose to £43.8m from £34.7m in the year to the end of March, on sales 22 percent higher at £740m, helped by the acquisition of the Bowes processing business.

Cranswick's bacon sales rose by 61 percent and sausages by 23 percent during the year. The company has signed up to make a range of charcuterie meats for celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who is bringing out a range of pasta and meat. The company also supplies pork for WeightWatchers-branded products.

It reduced its net debt by £11.9m to £34.7m.

Trade Directory

Danbred International UK has been added to the NPA Trade Directory.

Does your ventilation DVD sound okay?

There have been reports that the sound quality of some of the popular BPEX Pig Unit Ventilation DVDs is poor and that some people are finding difficult to hear the presenter, John Chambers, even with the volume turned right up.

If you have noticed this with your copy, please return it to BPEX and we will send out a replacement. If you need to return a faulty DVD, please send it to: BPEX KT R&D, AHDB, Stoneleigh Park, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, CV8 2TL with a note to say that it is faulty.

If you have yet to order your copy, please call Clancy Smith at BPEX on 02476 478792 or contact your local BPEX knowledge transfer manager. The DVD helps identify ventilation-related problems and provides practical solutions.

Saturday May 22, 2010

Public debate on CAP

There have been a thousand contributions so far to Brussels' public debate on the future of the the Common Agricultural Policy post-2103.

The consultation website will be open for responses until June 3 after which contributions will be summarised by an independent body and a summary report will be produced.

There will be a conclusive conference, hosted by the European Commission, on July 19-20.

Were your pigs culled?

Pig producer and Nuffield scholar Andrew Freemantle has a favour to ask those readers of this page whose pigs were culled during foot and mouth, and who subsequently rebuilt their businesses.

As part of his Nuffield he travelled to Japan in March where he met some some friendly and helpful pig farmers in the south of the country.

This Thursday he received the distressing news that his new friends had been caught up in the foot and mouth outbreak in Japan and their pigs have been culled.

"Here are some photos from happier times," he emails this morning. "Could you put them on the website, and ask for any messages of hope from fellow British pig farmers who have been through foot and mouth and lived to tell the tale, that I could forward to them?"

Andrew's email address is kenniford@hotmail.co.uk.

The picture below shows him and his friends having a meal. Between them these people had 700 sows on four farms — all wiped out.

friday may 21, 2010

Vion profits up

Vion Food Group's overall net profit rose from £46.8m to £53.8m in last year. Turnover increased 5 percent to 7.8 billion in what the company calls a "cautious recovery".

Net sales in the United Kingdom grew to £2m last year, up from £1.2m in 2008. Vion bought Grampian Country Food Group in August 2008.

The company has made redundancies last year and this, with cuts at its Welsh Country Foods plant in North Wales, and its Haverhill cooked meats plant, as well as the closure of some sites, such as its frozen sausage operation in Cumbria.

The United Kingdom workforce has fallen from 13,207 in 2008 to 12,659 last year. Vion describes its United Kingdom results as "very encouraging".

Next year at Lincoln

Feast of Fiddles will be returning to Lincoln next year, when the band will perform to a sell-out audience. The date for your diary is Monday April 18.

New board member for BPEX

A new member from a pig processing company has been appointed to the BPEX board. Marcus Cheale, of Cheale Meats of Brentwood, Essex takes up his position with immediate effect.

He looks after the buying and selling of pigs for the family business which was founded more than 50 years ago and started specialising in pigs about 12 years ago.

"I'll be on a sharp learning curve particularly on the pig production side but that is something I am keen to learn about," he said.

"We operate with contracts and long-term agreements with live pigs yet when it comes to pork the nature of our trading means we don't know until lunchtime what is being delivered that same evening and the following morning. It's all very reactive.

"This is in contrast to our sow trade which relies on constant supplies for manufacturing throughput of our regular European Union customers."

Thursday May 20, 2010

Must be the right compost

Demonstrating its desire to be involved in every corner of human activity, Brussels is planning to regulate compost.

The European Union should introduce compost standards that will apply in every member country, says the European Commission's environment department in an 11-page document, "Future steps in biowaste management" published this week.

It says 3-7 percent of depleted agricultural soils in the European Union could be improved by using compost from recycled biowaste and by imposing European Union compost standards.

The Sewage Sludge Directive, which is currently under review, could be the vehicle chosen for imposing minimum compost requirements.

Around 40 percent of biowaste, mainly garden, food and kitchen waste, still goes into land-fill in Europe.

Undignified sex puts him off pork

Eccentric actor Nicolas Cage claims he won't eat pork because he doesn't respect the way pigs have sex. Cage says he prefers to dine on poultry and fish because they mate in a "dignified" fashion. The Oscar-winning actor, who plays a drug-addicted cop in his latest film Bad Lieutenant, is well known for his quirky taste. His exotic pets have included an octopus, deadly cobras and a double-headed snake.

tuesday may 18, 2010

National Birthweight Week

The principle of National Birthweight Week is that producers in each country carry out a trial to investigate the effect of birthweight on productivity, all starting at the same time and following the pigs through to slaughter from the whole group over the same period.

For its part, the United Kingdom is targeting the third week in June (week beginning 21 June — or your nearest batch week) to mark up a sample of piglets above and below 1.5kg at birth and follow them through to slaughter.

The trial is open to everyone and already over 30 producers have signed up.

PIC will provide the protocol, the kit you need to weigh piglets and carry out the trial, and will co-ordinate the results.

It will also provide feedback at regular intervals, summarising the progress of the group, including reports on experiences from other countries where producers will take part in the trial at different times over the summer.

If you would like to join in with National Birthweight Week, contact PIC on 01865 822200.

• See June issue of Pig World for full details.

Shaky Greece economy could hit European pigmeat demand

The export competitiveness of Danish pigmeat has improved in recent weeks as a result of higher prices in the United States, in combination with a stronger United States dollar.

But nearer to home debt-plagued Greece is a concern as it could reduce demand in the European market, says analyst Karsten Flemin.

Increases in pigmeat output in Russia and Brazil could also pose future problems, and in China prices have fallen sharply since the beginning of the year.

French producers run 'everyone wins' campaign

Buying pork is a good way to feed the family... but buying French pork is a way to feed the family and to ensure a living for French pig farmers.

This is the gist of a series of adverts promoting French pork in France.

"Our production methods are the most demanding in terms of feeding, protection of the environment, also 98 percent of pig farms are family owned," says one of the adverts.

However the claim about family-owned farms is being challenged by an anti-meat group.

Anaerobic digestion

BPEX has produced an excellent six-page factsheet explaining anaerobic digestion. To view it, go here.

Feast of Fiddles CD

The new Feast of Fiddles CD Walk before you fly can now be bought on-line.