Finding Latest Feed Info
LIFFE feed wheat futures have been static in the past week at c. £110/t with promising Australian harvest reports, easing concern over winter kill concerns in eastern Europe and declining demand from Spanish livestock farmers - Spain is traditionally a key customer of UK wheat exports.

Soyameal
Bearish economic views and improvements in the South American crop have kept markets tumbling over the past couple of weeks.

Marketing News

Lovepork Website Update
All the advertising sites are delivering above average response rates. The current click through rate remains exceptionally strong at 0.34% vs. the industry average of 0.13% - 162% higher than the industry average. The online adverting campaign is also still outperforming the initial forecasts, as it has delivered 89% of the forecasted clicks and the campaign is still only half way through, similarly the search facility has currently delivered 74% of its forecasted clicks.  Over 143,000 pages on the Lovepork site have been viewed as a direct result of the online activity. Plus the competition, which comes to a close today, has seen entries numbering over 2,500 for the meat cookery course.  In support of the campaign, Channel 4 has also been extending our online advertising presence by increasing the amount of pages showing the Lovepork adverts. This included the pages featuring last Sundays, 22nd Feb, C4 TV programme Come Dine with Me on the Channel 4 food home page, plus some of the C4 pork recipe pages and this week the C4 food home page had a heavy feature all about pork. For an example click here.

Top Award for PAWI Campaign
This week the fifth Good House Keeping Food Awards announced its winners and the Pigs Are Worth It campaign won the Best Food Campaign of the Year. Voted on by their readers and judged by an esteemed panel of eight judges, which included Prue Leith and Jane Asher their comment was that they liked the fact that the campaign was ultimately about helping farmers.  For further info click here.

MTJ Pork Focus
Next week’s MTJ will feature a 16pg supplement on a range of current marketing topics to include, The Jamie Factor, how consumers have been turned on to pork, This is Houston, an interview with Stewart, Pigs Are Worth it campaign round up, Finger of Blame, focus on the EFRA committee views and a Love Pork marketing activity round up. 

Jamie’s Magazine Boosts Pork
Jamie Oliver has his own magazine, published bi monthly and only available in WHSmiths. This month not only features one of our own recipe advertorials but it also features a great 5 page article called Porky & Best, containing information on why we should be using the more traditional cuts of pork including recipes using shoulder, belly, hock & mince.

Met With Success
Following the screening of Jamie Saves Our Bacon a meeting was been held with the Metropolitan Police and a trial arranged of QSM Bacon at some of their units during Bacon Connoisseurs Week along with a trial of two forequarter cuts during March.  The aim is to see if Met Police staff would be prepared to pay a little more for bacon that has been produced to high animal welfare standards and also to increase the usage of pork at the expense of other proteins.

A trial has also been arranged for Belly Blocks and Collar steaks with the MOD to begin 1st April and run for six months across all UK armed forces feeding points.  Once again this is not about reducing their usage of other pork cuts but more about presenting pork as an alternative to more expensive proteins.

Knowledge Transfer

Tip of the Week – Eyes Have It
Pigs have very poor eyesight and as a result can be easily spooked by shadows when being moved. To pigs a shadow could be a step, a pit or the edge of a cliff, no wonder they seem reluctant to move down the passageway sometimes! Bear this in mind when moving pigs and try to eliminate any shadows or flickering lights.

Health and Efficiency
We can all achieve improvements in efficiency – and therefore profitability – but it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Often there are ideas already out there which can be applied immediately for an instant improvement. That is where Change for Success comes in, the first national knowledge transfer event being run by the BPEX Knowledge Transfer Team.

Speakers include farm manager of Alexander and Angell, Roger Meadows, who will talk about how he manages his pig unit with numbers. Dr Emma Baxter, who has undertaken some of the most up-to-date and exciting research in piglet mortality in the past few years. David Hughes, Professor of Food Marketing at Imperial College London, who spoke at this year’s Oxford Farming Conference, will explain the management of his fresh produce and supply chain enterprises and draw comparisons with pig production and an instant ask the audience quiz will identify what measures the group has taken to be biosecure.

The event is on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at The Haycock, London Road (A1), Wansford, Stamford, PE8 6JA. To book a place, or if you have any queries, please contact Radha Ray on 01908 844105, email: radha.ray@ahdbms.org.uk. Though the event is free, admission is by ticket only. Once you have registered the names of those who wish to attend, places will be reserved. Tickets will be sent in early March. The event starts at 2.00pm, tea and coffee will be available from 1.30pm. The event will close at about 6.30pm with a hot buffet. PIPR points will be awarded for people attending this event.

Updated Pollution Guide
The updated ‘CoGAP’, Protecting our Water, Soil and Air: A Code of Good Agricultural Practice for farmers, growers and land managers, is available free of charge. 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.  It has been written by technical specialists from Defra and Natural England. To download in pdf format, click here.  For hard copy (ISBN 9780112432845) contact The Stationery Office, PO Box 29, Norwich, NR3 1GN. Telephone number: 0870 600 5522.

SW Healthy Livestock Initiative
A group of producers met at the first Pig Focus Group to channel ideas from pig producers on how they would like the millions of pounds of RDA funding made available to the South West pig industry. Producers representing a wide range of unit types, organic, indoor and outdoor, met Nick Bell from Bristol Vet School and Helen Thoday from BPEX, who sits on the SWHLI board representing pigs, each unit talked about what management changes they had made on their units that had led to significant improvements in production through improved health.

This information will be used to create a questionnaire to go out to all pig producers in the South West. A workshop to gain more ideas about the channelling of funds will take place on in Taunton on March 11th. If your pig unit is in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire and you would like information on SWHLI or would like to be a part of the next workshop to have your say please contact Helen Thoday 07973 701202.

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 (5 pm 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. Meetings are taking place in central England on the following dates: 3rd March – Gainsborough, Lincs. and 4th March – Market Drayton, Shropshire. 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.

NVZ workshops
The meetings will cover NVZ information including key points of the Nitrates Action Plan, NVZ areas and how to identify if your land is in an NVZ, support available to help with implementation, sources of information, definition of dirty water, slurry and farmyard manure, reducing volumes of dirty water and slurry produced and much more. To find a meeting near you and for more information visit the Natural England website by clicking here. Note: events are booking up very quickly and many regions are now operating a reserve list.

Mark Wilson Leaves BPEX
Mark Wilson, Director of Knowledge Transfer, Research and Development, has decided to leave BPEX Ltd to take up a position as Agricultural Director with Vion UK, Pork Division.

It is planned that Mark will remain with BPEX until the end of June 2009 to ensure a smooth transition when BPEX relocates to Stoneleigh Park in the Summer.

BPEX Chief Executive Mick Sloyan said: “We are extremely grateful to Mark for all his hard work and commitment to helping the English pig industry. Since he joined BPEX in July 2005, he has established a successful knowledge transfer team that has made a real difference to pig producers. We wish him well in his future career.”

BPEX will be seeking a replacement immediately to maintain the momentum of KTR&D delivery to the English pig industry.

Census Results
Results from the latest Defra farm census have been published. A short report has been produced on the pig sector by BPEX senior economic analyst Tony Fowler. Click here to download it.

National News:

Pig Farmer of the Year
The search for Farmers Weekly Pig Farmer of the Year 2009 has begun with entries and nominations now open. And with the industry already getting off to a good start this year, things could be getting better for one lucky producer.

Farmers Weekly will be looking for positive producers seeking a way forward in a currently challenging industry. Last Year’s winner Andrew Freemantle says the extra publicity he has received would have cost him thousands and has proved essential in marketing his free range produce and farm shop. So if you have aspiring future plans for your unit, are efficient and are constantly thinking about marketing the end product…what are you waiting for….apply.  The closing date is 30 April 2009. Entry forms can be downloaded at www.farmersweeklyawards.co.uk.

Send your entry to Farmers Weekly Awards, Quadrant House, Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5AS
For further information contact Marion Phillips on 020 8652 4081 or email marion.phillips@rbi.co.uk

New FAWC Members
Ministers have appointed two new members to the Farm Animal Welfare Council with effect from February 2008. One is Mike Wijnberg - Leading veterinarian for a large pig production and processing company. Member of the Pig Veterinary Society, the American Association of Swine Veterinarians and RSPCA's Freedom Food Technical Advisory Committee on pigs. The other is Dr Philip Scott - Reader of Farm Animal Studies at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies.

Outlook Conference Rescheduled
A new date has now been set for the Outlook Conference jointly hosted by BPEX and EBLEX. The original date fell victim to the weather and has been rescheduled for Wednesday 8 April. The venue remains One Great George Street, Westminster, London and the programme is also largely unchanged. All those booked to attend on the original date will be contacted but there are still some places left and anybody who wishes to attend should contact Rita Webb, email rita.webb@ahdbms.org.uk. A revised conference brochure will also be sent out.

NADIS Latest
PCV2 vaccines are now widely used in the UK with the choice of vaccinating the piglet directly or vaccinating the sow.  Benefits of applying vaccine via the sow; are reduced cost and workload, earlier protection of the piglet and – where implicated – prevention of acute reproductive disease in the sow herself.  However, the primary aim of all vaccines is to protect the growing herd against PCV2 disease (PMWS/PDNS and its less specific variants) and as such, vaccination of the sow is inherently dependent upon colostral transfer of immunity and the establishment of maternally derived antibodies (MDA) in the young pig.

Colostrum management is, therefore, key to success of this approach and a failure to ensure full colostrum intake in the first 12 hours of life is likely to risk disappointing results from a sow vaccine programme. There is a lot more to successful vaccination than simply injecting pigs.

International Prices
Click here for the latest international prices.