Finding Latest Feed Info
Weak currency drove wheat prices a further £6.75 in the past week while concern remains for 2009 crops as stocks stay relatively tight. Soy markets remain dominated by weather news coming from South America. Chicago soyameal futures climbed to close at $350/ton on Thursday, the highest level since mid September, making UK pricing difficult.

Jamie Oliver: Save Our Bacon

The programme will be transmitted at 9pm this Thursday, January 29, on Channel 4 and various media articles and interviews have been aired over the past week to highlight the programme.  To support this we have been in constant dialogue with the retailers informing them of the opportunities available if they choose to support this activity and the programme.  A range of support promotional material has been produced, in the form of: new recipes, posters, recipe booklets, stickers and raw cuts specifications.   Some of this information and imagery has been taken and used by retailers, and some have chosen to use their own resources.  Some retail in store promotional activity has already started and others begin next week in the lead up to the programme.  This includes activity such as, on-pack stickers, recipe leaflets either on pack or on the fixtures plus price promotions on varieties of fresh pork cuts, which also include the ones being featured on the programme - roast belly, roast shoulder and shoulder steaks. 

Promotions currently instore include:
Tesco applying large union flags to a variety of British pork products including belly, shoulder & leg joints.  Also a recipe fix a form can be found on a selection of pork chops, mince, belly, collar, shoulder and leg joints.  Price promotions are on offer which include 1/2 price on leg, shoulder -and save £2 on stuffed belly, plus british bone in chops and belly slices.

Sainsbury’s is using Jamie’s recipes and supporting activity in-store will be as part of a promotion on the Freedom Food ranges promoting pork mince, belly, ribs and shoulder joints. The last three will mostly be promoted over the counters and Sainsbury’s has developed an in-store recipe leaflet, which also features alternative cuts for beef and lamb as well as pork (shoulder and belly).  Jamie’s pork belly recipe will be on a barker card which customers tear off and take home and will be placed in-situ with the pork belly in aisle.

Waitrose is currently offering a third off shoulder joints.

Morrisons has a range of price offers available across the fresh pork range, and are currently still applying the Lovepork sticker to all fresh British pork.

Asda has a number of price promotions on offer now, including shoulder joints.   Aldi & Netto and wholesaler outlet Makro are also participating by using the on-pack stickers, plus the promotional kits recently produced and sent to 5000 independent retailers, which includes posters, vinyls and recipe booklets.  For further details or to order a kit, go to www.porkforbutchers.co.uk.  Butchery cutting specifications of the cuts being used can be found by clicking here.

For a complete run down on in-store activity, click here.

New Look Lovepork Website
From 27th Jan a new and updated www.lovepork.co.uk website will feature the new recipes plus a simple steps guide on how to cook pork, and in support of the website and the programme, online banner advertising is being placed on Channel 4's website and other food/recipe related websites, from 27th Jan until the end of February/early March.  To help drive visitors to the website there is also a consumer competition to win a meat cookery day for two, so have a look around the site and enter now! Visit www.lovepork.co.uk

Coop Goes 100% British
The Co-operative Group is converting its entire range of own-brand bacon, gammon and fresh pork to British in an initiative to support UK farmers and to raise animal welfare standards.
The move has been welcomed by BPEX Chairman Stewart Houston who said: "It's great to see The Co-operative making such a strong commitment to home-produced pork and pork products. Consumers are keen to back quality home-produced pork and pork products, and we would encourage other supermarkets which haven't quite reached the same level to follow suit."

Learn to Cook Pork
Celebrity MasterChef Champion Liz McClarnon spent a day talking to 21 regional radio stations yesterday (22 Jan) promoting the tour and the new simple steps guide on how easy pork is to cook with.  The radio stations in the 6 regions that the tour is going to (Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool. Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol) will also be running promotions during next week, to encourage entrants to apply for free tickets to attend the tour.  The tour will consist of Liz McClarnon and the BPEX Home Economist demonstrating how to ‘Cook Pork Properly’.  And if you want to see how it’s done by the professionals then enter the competition to be in with a chance of attending one of the tour dates go to www.lovepork.co.uk and complete the entry form.

LIPs Activity
LIPs member Julia Blant, gave an interview to Anna Hill from Farming Today, based on credit crunch tips, which value cuts to use and how best to cook them.  The presenter arrived with a cameraman, as they wanted some footage for a new website feature "Behind the Scenes on Farming Today".  Shots were taken of the pigs looking playful in their deep straw, and the sows who were quite interested in what was happening, followed by shots in the kitchen of pans bubbling and sizzling. The cooking demo consisted of marinated belly pork slices – cooked in a slow oven wrapped in foil. Followed by sausage and bacon risotto (from the LIPS 2008 recipe leaflet) and then Pork Ragu using pork mince.  Despite Anna being vegetarian, the cameraman was not and together with our farm secretary they did the tasting on air.  Even Anna tried and enjoyed the risotto, but carefully removed all the bacon bits and no sausage! The use of shoulder and collar cuts was covered, and casseroling was suggested for busy mums. Also mentioned were the two main websites – LIPs via NPA and the Lovepork.co.uk site.  Fingers crossed that none of the important bits are edited out. Due to air on Monday morning 5.45am.

Bacon Connoisseurs Week Contest
Last chance to enter:  The third Bacon Connoisseurs week is due to happen in March, however we are calling all producers of bacon to enter the competition to find Britains Connoissuer Bacon.  This year there are four categories to enter, Classic Dry, Wiltshire, Speciality or Smoked Cure.  Go to www.lovebacon.info for an entry form and more info on the week.

Morrisons Recipe Booklets
From 27 Jan the Taste the Tradition recipe booklets will be stocked in the top 375 stores.

Knowledge Transfer

Tip of the week: Fox Fences
It is essential that you manage and maintain your electric fox fences. Keeping foxes and badgers away from farrowing paddocks is essential to reduce numbers of missing piglets. Use this checklist regularly to maintain your fences:

• Grass growth leaning on the lower fence strands
• Cracked or damaged insulators
• Sagging or broken wire
• Rusty wire
• Poor joins in wire
• Inadequate energiser for your fence length 
• Insufficient earthing 
• Tractor ruts under the gateways

Code of Good Agricultural Practice
Protecting our Water, Soil and Air: A Code of Good Agricultural Practice for farmers, growers and land managers (the ‘CoGAP’) consolidates and updates the former three separate codes for water, soil and air. The publication offers practical interpretation of legislation and provides good advice on best practice; ‘good agricultural practice’ means a practice that minimises the risk of causing pollution while protecting natural resources and allowing economic agriculture to continue. The new guide is available from the Defra website or can be obtained by phoning 0870 600 5533. The guides are free to registered farmers. http://www.defra.gov.uk/FARM/environment/cogap/index.htm

Preparing Pigs for Slaughter
Housing, careful handling, group size, stocking levels as well as loading and transportation can all have a major influence on the welfare of the finished pig and financial returns for the producer.

ADAS, together with BPEX and Vetscore, are to hold 10 early evening workshops (5pm to 7.30 pm) with refreshments from early February which are free to all producers, unit staff and members of the wider pig industry.

Besides focusing on the on-farm management issues, the most common problems seen in the abattoir will be shown and discussed how they impact on the health and welfare of the live pig.
The first meetings are taking place at the beginning of February in East Anglia (Writtle 2nd, Diss 3rd, and Norwich 4th). If you are interested in attending please contact Lynne Holmes on 01522 751374 or email lynne.holmes@adas.co.uk  to book your place. You will be able to collect PIPR points at these events.

National News:

Producers Sought
BPEX Foodservice Trade Sector Manager Tony Goodger  has had an approach from a Major UK Contract Catering business with prestigious Government and Business Accounts looking to source QSM bacon, gammon and ham producers to serve in their contracts. Please e-mail your company's details to tony.goodger@ahdbms.org.uk.

NADIS Latest
Swine Dysentery has become an all too familiar issue to many producers over the last year or so and in many cases has cropped up in finishing herds where the parent breeding herd remains free of the disease.

In many such cases contamination of pigs during transportation has been implicated or suspected.  There is a statutory requirement for all lorries to be washed and disinfected properly following transportation of animals, before they carry animals from a different site.

If producers are selling or relocating weaners using outside hauliers, they should ensure that wagons have been properly cleaned.  Lorries should be inspected before pigs are loaded.  Furthermore, cross contamination of lorries at washing areas (e.g. in abattoir yards) means that any lorry must be visibly clean before returning to have contact with herd animals.

Revisions to IPPC Directive
Last summer proposed changes to the IPPC Directive were published by the Commission of the European Communities, these included a number of changes with direct consequences for the pig, poultry and animal feed industries.

A slightly amended version of these proposals took its first step on the road to approval by the European Parliament this week. There are a number of steps yet before the final parliamentary vote by MEPs, possibly early summer. Across Europe representatives of farming and other industries are voicing their grave concerns to their MEPs. If adopted these changes will bring significantly more pig and poultry farms into the regime, breeder feeder units are the most threatened.

International News:

SPAM Hits China
Hormel Foods is launching SPAM in China, expanding on the success of the company's iconic meat product line in other Asian markets.

"We are launching the SPAM family of products in China," Marianne Pollock, senior product manager of the SPAM family of products for Hormel Foods International, confirmed. "Based on success of the brand to delight consumers in Korea, the Philippines and Okinawa, Japan, we aim to replicate this scale and success."

International Prices
Click here for the latest international prices