Knowledge Transfer

Tip of the Week - Help for Farmers
Confused by the NVZ regulations? Guidance to help farmers understand and implement the Action Programme measures are now available. The Nitrate Pollution Prevention Regulations (SI 2008/2349) establish the Action Programme measures and describe them in full detail. Nine guidance documents have been produced by Defra and the Environment Agency to help farmers understand the requirements, implement, and comply with the Action Programme measures. The documents can be downloaded by clicking here.

Climate Change Workshop
Farmers in the East Midland’s are invited to attend a free workshop to discuss the risks and opportunities climate change presents to their businesses. Organised by Farming Futures, in partnership with the NFU, the event, taking place on Wednesday 5th November, will focus on the regional impacts of climate change, what farmers can do now to prepare their businesses and focus on the opportunities provided by biomass.

The event takes place at the Rural Training Centre, Leicestershire and starts at 10:00 running through until 13:30 with refreshments provided. To register, please call: 0207 324 3670 or 07825204434.

Avoid Performance Drop
Performance of the 2nd parity sow can be disappointing and badly affect the breeding herd performance average. This can lead to high return rates and subsequently early culling of young sows. This will affect the profitability of a herd with a decrease in output and an increase in gilt expenses as well as influencing the general staff morale. BPEX is this autumn running a series of open workshops aimed at producers and stock people focusing on management of the 1st and 2nd parity sow with the team from ABN/ Primary Diets presenting the latest information on feeding strategies. All meetings are PIPR registered. Workshops start at 6pm and finish at 8.30pm.

• Tuesday 18th November 2008, The Crown Hotel, Horsefair, Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, YO51 9LB
• Wednesday 19th November 2008 The Feathers Hotel., 56 Market Place, Pocklington East Riding Of Yorkshire, YO42 2AH
• Tueday 25th November The Croft Hotel, Croft On Tees, Darlington, North Yorkshire, DL2 2ST.

Refreshments will be provided. To register contact Lis Ravn: phone: 0789 165 6784; Email: lisbeth.ravn@bpex.org.uk

Marketing News

Pig Price Forecasts
BPEX Senior Economic Analyst Tony Fowler has produced a spreadsheet of quarterly pig price forecasts through to 2009 Q2.  It is based on a spreadsheet recently published on the European Commission's website. To see the forecasts click here.

An Inconvenient Trough
A DVD called, An Inconvenient Trough, which outlines the crisis in the pig industry is being launched at the David Black Awards, next Weds 29th Oct.  Produced by a range of pig farmers it contains 3 short films. Part one, launched today, focuses on the supply chain from farm to supermarkets and butchers.  Part two, which looks at the food service sector and part three, which covers public sector purchasing of pork and pork products will be released on www.pigsareworthit.com next month.   Along with the farmers it also features Richard Bacon MP, Lord Hoyle of Warrington and TV Chef Phil Vickery.  A press release will be circulated to all media and it will be featured on the http://www.pigsareworthit.com website .

Pigs are Worth it! Campaign is awarded Highly Commended
At a recent prestigious PR Week Awards ceremony in London, the campaign was awarded the commendation within the Specialist & Technique section under Public Affairs. The campaign was up against 4 other finalists all with different types of public affairs issues. The award was for the combined use of political, trade and consumer PR agencies within one campaign, to work together with the main aim of achieving a rise in the pork retail price, which has gone from £1.06 to £1.60.

Al Murray presented with a Banger Award
Watch tonight’s programme to see East Anglian Pig Producer Peter Havers, along with Barney, Zoe, Jimmy Butler and a few other farmers in the audience showing off their British Sausage Week Tshirts.  The group also managed to present the host Al Murray with a British Sausage Week Banger Award in support of the week – 3-9 November see http://pigworld.co.uk/Pages/news.html for a piccy.  If you miss the programme click here

National News:

NADIS Latest
Sarcoptic mange is the principal skin parasitic disease occurring in pigs in the UK and is periodically reported in all classes of stock by NADIS surveillance veterinary surgeons.  Whilst weaners and growers can pass the mite from pig to pig particularly in continually occupied, close contact systems, sows probably constitute the primary source of infection.  The classic sign of mange is irritation with head shaking and scratching/rubbing prominent. Modern injectable treatments using a group of chemicals called Avermectins are highly effective if given correctly both in terms of dose and timing, where coupled with hygiene measures.

Pig Health
A short report from IPVS written by leading pig specialist Jake Waddilove MRCVS explains the key work presented by Steve Krakowka and his team showing that a new, difficult to control organism, Porcine Torque Teno Virus (TTV) can potentiate both PCV2 and PRRSV infections in pigs.  Click here to view the article.

Pig Support Package To Help Industry Move On
NFU Scotland has welcomed the launch of four new projects valued at £700,000.  The projects were announced by the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Richard Lochhead. The projects will form part of the £1 million pig package announced by Scottish Government in August.

Improving The Quality of Pork and Pork Products For The Consumer
Developing of innovative, integrated, and sustainable food production chains of high quality pork products matching consumer demands is the overall objective of the ambitious 5-year EU-project, which involve research and development done by a large number of institutions and companies world-wide and which cover the entire pork products chain from fork-to-farm. The target is to strengthen the competiveness of the meat industry, and includes pilot and demonstrations chains, SME networking and education, training and dissemination.

If you are interested to hear more about some of the results until now and maybe take part in pilot activities, the Q-pork-chain project  would like to invite interested actors to the Q-Pork¬Chains session at the EuroTier exhibition in Hannover on the 11th of November.
For more details please click here or visit www.q-porkchains-industry.org

River Water Quality Up 
Environment Agency data shows that the quality of water in rivers in England and Wales continues to improve.

Figures from the Environment Agency’s annual General Quality Assessment (GQA) show that 76 per cent of English rivers, and 95 per cent of those in Wales, achieved ‘very good’ or ‘good’ status in terms of chemical water quality in 2007, up from 55 and 86 per cent respectively in 1990.

The biological quality of rivers also continued to improve, with 72 per cent of rivers in England and 87 per cent of those in Wales, achieving ‘very good’ or ‘good’ status last year, up from 55 and 79 per cent respectively in 1990.

International News:

Maple Leaf Plant OK
Meat from a Maple Leaf Foods plant that was linked to an outbreak of listeriosis that has killed 20 people in Canada has been cleared for consumption.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada have completed evaluations of the effectiveness of listeria monitoring and control measures at the Bartor Road facility and concluded that, aside from one production line, the plant's products are safe for consumption and can be released for distribution.

Maple Leaf shut down operations at Bartor Road on Aug. 20 after listeria contamination was detected and linked to the outbreak. After completing a sanitization process, the company resumed production on Sept. 17. Since then, the company noted, 60 product samples have been taken from each line daily.

"This is by far the most rigorous testing and sampling program in North America, during this monitoring period," Maple Leaf said on its Web site. "No products from the plant that tested positive for listeria have been distributed and the protocols we have in place have proven to be very effective."

US Pig Prices Under Threat
USDA's Cold Storage report released Wednesday revealed evidence that ham values, and consequently hog prices, will continue to deteriorate for the rest of the year, which could re-ignite interest from foreign buyers.

September's stock of bone-in and boneless hams was only 1 percent lower than that of last year.

"If ham cold storage stocks match or surpass last year's excessively large levels, then we could see a further deterioration in ham values and consequently hog prices for the remainder of the year," livestock analysts Steve Meyer and Len Steiner had predicted in their Daily Livestock Report.

Export Bulletin
For the latest Export Bulletin,Click here

International Prices
Click here for the latest international prices