Knowledge Transfer

Tip of the week – Pig Watching
How do you observe your pigs? Is it by entering the rooms in a noisy manner or do you quietly walk in and look at the pigs undisturbed? Obviously the latter will give a truer picture of the pigs’ behaviour and a chance for you to observe any signs of discord, disease or discomfort. A good example is piglet lying behaviour in the creep area; what does it mean when piglets are lying on a sleeping sow? Many think this is quite ‘sweet’ and that the piglets are doing this to keep warm, but it may indicate that the sow is unwell or ill, so check that she is eating and drinking well, and keep an extra eye on her well-being.

Climate Change Workshop
Farmers in Norfolk are attending a workshop to discuss the risks and opportunities that climate change presents to their businesses.

Organised by Farming Futures, in partnership with BPEX, the event will focus on the regional impacts of climate change, what farmers can do now to prepare their businesses for the future and focus on the impact of temperature on the pig and managing water. The workshop is being held on Wednesday 12th November at Richmond Park Golf Club, Thetford. Expert speakers include Ian Dennis MRCVS, from Oakwood Vets, and Kayt Johnson from BPEX. Delegates will be eligible for PIPR points.

Claire Wyatt, Farming Futures project manager said: “Farming Futures is a great resource for farmers, land managers and their advisors. Anyone worried about, or interested in finding out more about, the opportunities and risks that climate change brings should attend these events.” The Farming Futures website (www.farmingfutures.org.uk) lists the free events that are coming up. You can also download factsheets and case studies about pigs and many other climate change related topics.

Practical Advice
For the latest practical hints and tips from the KT team which appear in Pig World, please click here

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

Sausage Week Update
Launched on Monday at the S&M (Sausage & Mash!!) Café in Spitalfields market. The Manufacturer and Retailer winners were presented with their Banger Awards. The Manufacturer winner was Tulip with their Original London Banger – and on Weds to celebrate they gave out free sausages on Waterloo station, which was mentioned on Heart and Capital FM radio stns in conjunction with BSW. 

The retail winner was Waitrose with their Cumberland Whorl, who will be featuring the sausage during an instore tasting taking place in 106 stores this week, and also there will be a feature within their staff newsletter.  Other retailers are also carrying out instore sausage tastings, including Harrods in London, Tesco Western regional stores and Tesco Eastern regional stores supported by LIPs.  For the butcher who won the Eastern region, Primrose Pork, there was TV coverage on ITV Anglia East and BBC1 East.  Plus during the week there have been many regional radio interviews with Dickie Bird.  There was interest from the Chris Evans afternoon radio show, with Nigel Barden the food writer doing a piece on Thursday evening, plus Loose Women an afternoon TV show, was due to be doing sausage sampling.  Also many multiple retailers are carrying the Sausage Week logo sticker on their packs of sausages. Three special celebrities have also been awarded a sausage & mash porktrait of themselves, Tim Lovejoy, Terry Wogan and Jane McDonald.  To view these and for up to date info on all the regional winners visit http://www.britishsausageweek.com/BritishSausageWeekWinners2008.asp or call 0207 861 3149 for media enquiries.

Regional Radio Competitions
From this week until 14th Nov. 40 regional radio stations will be carrying competitions to win a Virgin national trust experience day as well as highlighting the various ways of cooking with pork and the range of recipes available in the new booklet, the Taste of Tradition.

Butchers Roadshow
Butchers Product Evaluation Regional Roadshow – 12 November.
To be held at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate. Entries are still being taken from butchers and farm shops in the region for evaluation by a team of specialist judges. Starting at 2pm the butchers arrive with anything from sausages, bacon, pies, ready meals, faggotts, black pudding or meatballs.  While judging then takes place between 4 & 6pm there is plenty to see and people to talk to around the venue as there are over 12 exhibitors showcasing their products, offering tastings and special offers.  If you would like to enter download an entry form from http://www.britishmeatnpd.com/product/britmeatroadshows/index.html or call Jackie on 01908 844107. Alternatively if you wish to just come along and have a chat with the exhibitors or entrants, then just turn up and if you enter your name into a free prize draw you could be in with a chance of winning a box of wine

National News:

Bring the Bacon Home
A minister has agreed to look into a Tory MP's claim that bacon served up by the Ministry of Defence was not produced in Britain. Andrew Rosindell (Romford) levelled the charge at Commons question time.

Environment Minister Jane Kennedy said this wasn't what she understood the position to be but agreed to investigate.

Later an MoD spokeswoman commented: "Most of our pig products are British - 100% of the 720 tonnes of pork, plus the 41 tonnes of whole gammon and 95% of sausages supplied to the armed forces are British, based on available figures.

"MoD is obliged to seek best value for money when procuring items at public expense. Based on a recent study, frozen British bacon was significantly more expensive than the same product from the EU."

Real Time View of Feed Wheat
A new section on feed grain prices - vital for producers - has just been added to the BPEX website.

The section is the result of collaboration between BPEX and HGCA – both now part of the new Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.

It covers the futures prices for wheat, soybean meal and maize, all of which are updated hourly while the markets are trading.

There are also graphs looking at longer term trends in feed grains plus the Brent crude oil prices which is closely linked to cereals and soya prices.

Economics Manager of AHDB Meat Services Joanne Knowles said: “For producers, wheat and soya are a major element when it comes to buying feed and this gives them a real-time view of what is happening to these prices.

“For example, if future soya prices are rising, a producer may decide to secure a proportion of his soya requirement now to tie in at a lower price, or he may want to look at alternatives to soya within the rations. However, it is important to remember these are futures prices rather than delivered prices to the farm which will usually be a bit higher.”

Pig Market Trends
The October issue of Pig Market Trends, available from AHDB meat services Economics department, presents the latest forecasts of UK pig supplies.  Clean pig slaughterings are forecast to fall by two per cent this year, followed by a further four per cent fall in 2009 to 8.75 million head.  The sow cull in 2009 is forecast to be in the region of 200,000 head, compared with 233,000 this year.  For information on how to subscribe to Pig Market Trends, please contact Jo Stanton  jo.stanton@ahdbms.org.uk

Chinese Reception
A top level Chinese delegation will be attending a reception, sponsored by BPEX, at the world’s biggest specialised livestock event. Eurotier takes place in Hanover, Germany on November 11 to 14 and all UK major pig breeding companies will be present, co-ordinated by the British Pig Association. The reception is for the 30-strong delegation from the Chinese pork industry on November 13 and there are plans to arrange individual meetings with companies and organisations.

BPEX Export Manager Jean-Pierre Garnier said: “China is by far the largest market for pork in the world, consuming almost half global production. It has already been opened to UK breeding stock and a number of firms are actively exporting – it is a trade that is growing and has the potential to expand very fast. A protocol has also been signed which will open the Chinese market to our pork and pork products. Abattoirs wishing to take part in trade with China are being identified prior to official inspections next year.”

International News:

Salmonella Seminar
Anyone attending Eurotier in Hanover from November 11 to 14 might be interested in the International Seminar on Salmonella Control in Food Animals. Pre-registration is required and for more information, click here

Authorising GMOs
While statistics indicate an increased use of GM crops in Europe for 2008, Member States continue to disagree about possible changes to the authorisation process for GMOs. Some are keen to accelerate the approval procedures and would like to see technical solutions for low level presence of non approved GMO in imported feed (UK, DK), whereas some others (France, Germany, Italy) insist on the need for a more accurate environmental assessment of GM crops. A decision is expected at the Council session in December but political discussions within the October Envi Council showed that the Member States are far from reaching a compromise.

Meanwhile, a study reveals that the EU zero tolerance policy cost 2.5 bn euros to the feed industry in 2006/07 and forecasts that if the situation remains unchanged, the livestock sector could suffer "a massive loss of competitiveness".

Waste Framework Directive
The EU Waste Framework Directive (WFD) has now been adopted. The text clarifies a number of important definitions, such as recycling, recovery and waste itself. In particular, it draws a line between waste and by-products and defines when waste has been recovered through recycling or other treatment to cease being waste. A combined reading of this new directive and the Commission proposal on animal-by-products brings reasonable hope that the situation as regards the burning of tallow could see some improvements in medium term.

Commodity Markets Outlook
According to the Commission’s 2008 Outlook for World Agricultural Commodity Markets, the meat sector as a whole is expected to continue its long-term expansion (2.5%/year) mainly driven by population growth. It is foreseen that Brazil will be responsible for half of the growth with 30% of total meat exports by 2017. Over the projection period, prices are expected to grow moderately from 18-24% compared to last decade.

Export Bulletin
For the latest export bulletin, click here.

International Prices
Click here for the latest international prices