Finding Latest Feed Info
Strategie Grains report unfavourable dry, hot weather across Europe throughout May will reduce EU grain production. 2009/10 EU wheat production is now seen at 126.3Mt, down 2.6Mt from the previous estimate (140Mt ‘08/09).

Australian wheat production for the 2009 harvest is seen at 22Mt, 0.6Mt above that of ’08/09. In the US, private analysts, Informa Economics, have estimated the US soyabean area at 31.9Mha. China is expected to reduce its soyabean imports in the ‘09/10 season as rising prices calm demand. Import levels are forecast to fall by 7.5% on the previous season.  Click here for more.

Marketing News

Jimmy Needs Help!
Pig farmer, television personality and British pig industry champion Jimmy Doherty is planning to expose retailers who connive with processors to mislead shoppers.

He has joined forces with BPEX to find out if shoppers can tell from standard supermarket labels what is and what isn’t British pork. A recent YouGov poll showed shoppers find labels misleading and believe they should be clearer.

He said: “As a pig farmer myself I am hugely concerned that products containing imported pork that does not meet minimum United Kingdom welfare standards can legally be labelled as British.”

Jimmy and BPEX are keen for pig producers to join the campaign at these city centre venues:

• Tuesday June 30: Birmingham and Norwich.
• Thursday July 2: Leeds and Nottingham.
• Monday July 6: Bristol and Southampton.

“No More Porkies” placards and t-shirts will be available. Jimmy Doherty will encourage passers-by to pick up five pork products with clear country of origin labels and put them in an empty basket as quick as they can.

He will tell shoppers how many products they identified correctly and will explain some of the issues around unclear labelling. He will encourage shoppers to look for the Quality Standard Mark.

If you take part in the campaign, you will be asked to speak to passers-by and to take part in a photo call. If you are willing to attend and take part at one of the venues above, please contact Gabriela Davies on 0207 861 3106, Gdavies@goodrelations.co.uk.

BBQ Promotional Material
In support of the Lovepork BBQ Consumer PR campaign, running with Phil Tufnell, butchers will shortly be receiving their promotional material.  This will aid in the promotion of a whole host of pork cuts suitable for BBQ’ing this Summer.  It includes recipe booklets, stickers and posters.  Copies of the recipe book can be downloaded from www.lovepork.co.uk

Campaign Wins Another Award
The prestigious Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival has announced the winners of its inaugural awards for public relations work.

The ‘Pigs Are Worth It!’ campaign has won the Best PR-led Integrated Campaign Award.  The initiative was executed by a truly integrated team of agencies: Good Relations (consumer PR), Weber Shandwick (public affairs), HD Communications (trade PR) and DDB (advertising).

Weber Shandwick UK & Europe CEO Colin Byrne  said: “The Cannes Lions Festival recognising public relations excellence for the first time is a great step forward for PR professionals and we are delighted to be part of this first ever Cannes Lions public relations win.

BPEX Head of Marketing Chris Lamb said: “It is hard to accurately gauge the overall financial impact of the campaign on the pig industry. But a spend measured in six figures made a huge contribution to pig farmers, helping prevent millions upon millions of pounds of losses.  This success was due to the combined skills and experience of all our agencies and a truly integrated approach.”

Knowledge Transfer

Tip of the Week: Variation
Variation occurs for many reasons: season, management, nutrition, feeding strategy, genotype, environment, gender and health. It is important that the effort and resources put into producing finished pigs are not wasted at the final stage and that uniformity among pigs being sent to slaughter is maximised.

Weighing pigs on a routine basis throughout their lifetime, ie weighing at routine pig moves/flow, gives you essential information that will help you improve uniformity. The data will let you know when your weight spread becomes out of the norm or if growth rates are slowing. Solving these problems will rectify issues with uniformity early on in the pig’s life before they extrapolate. More information can be found in Action for Productivity 11.

Mike Varley Joins BPEX
Dr Mike Varley will bring unique expertise in both practical pig meat production and academia when he joins BPEX as Head of Knowledge Transfer, Research and Development.

Mike, who joins BPEX on August 3 has been working as an independent consultant with his own company and before that he was with NuTec UK and then SCA Nutrition, both parts of Provimi.

He also has many years’ experience working at a number of different universities.

His academic and commercial roles have provided the opportunity to travel widely and develop detailed knowledge of pig meat production across the world including visits to North America, Australia, New Zealand, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Korea, Japan Thailand, Malaysia, South America and throughout Europe.

BPEX Director Mick Sloyan said: “Mike has a wealth of experience which dovetails with the needs of BPEX. BPEX KT R&D has been transformed in recent years and I look forward to working with Mike to extend that work to deliver even more benefit to levy payers and their businesses.”

Mike said: “It is my aspiration to harness existing knowledge and to develop innovative technical solutions to address changes throughout the pig meat supply chain.

“Our pig technology is also seen outside in the wider world as being among the best there is and this in itself may bring commercial advantage to our industry.”

Joint IPPC Lobbying Wins
Following joint lobbying by Defra, NFU and NPA — with pivotal technical input by Nigel Penlington of BPEX — environment ministers reached political agreement in Luxembourg not to extend IPPC down to 200-sow farms. This is a major success and NPA applauds the input of all organisations involved, and makes particular mention of former minister Jane Kennedy who travelled to Brussels shortly after her appointment, to help the industry make its case.

New BPHS Assessment Dates
The dates for the next six months assessments have been finalised. The flyer with the dates on has been posted out to all members, but if you have not received a copy or need extras contact BPEX. The dates can also be viewed on the website.

Free Business Development Workshop
Lantra and Business Link West Midlands would like to invite you to a free business development workshop, specifically designed to meet your business needs. If you are attending the Royal Show 2009 on Friday 10 July why not take the opportunity to attend the interactive afternoon, which will cover:

• Effectively marketing your business on a budget 
• Practical tips to improve the performance of your website 
• Cash flow management and keeping your finances afloat
• Ways to cut costs and increase your profit margins 
• Funding opportunities including Lantra’s Women and Work and LandSkills initiatives.

The workshop will take place between 1:30pm and 4pm in the Global Science & Business Centre (GSBC) on Friday 10 July. This event is open to all businesses working in the environmental and land-based industries.  Booking is essential so to reserve your place call 0845 707 8007 or email events@lantra.co.uk.

Please note: The business workshop is part of the Royal Show and although the workshop is free you will have to purchase a ticket to enter the show. Visit www.royalshow.org.uk for more information.

Interactive Action for Productivity!
The BPEX online Action for Productivity factsheets are now interactive, allowing you to click through from one subject area to a related topic in other sheets helping you get the practical tips and techniques you are looking for more quickly and easily. You can also click through directly to related websites and email links. See the whole range of sheets here.

Tender Invitation
Tenders are invited by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board operating through its BPEX division for the development of data management and decision support tools for the BPEX pig health 20:20 programme.
Tenders must be received not later than 16:00 hours on July 8, 2009. Tenders received after that time will be excluded.  Full details can be found here.

National News:

Knowledge Transfer Hub Created
Pig experts from across Europe will be gathering in the UK next month (Jul) for the first ever meeting of a Knowledge Transfer hub.

The meeting has been put together by the BPEX KT team in consultation with their European counterparts.

As well as increasing the number of study tours the KT team and KT pig clubs participate in, the BPEX team plans to set up a unique network with fellow KT professionals.

The aim is to discover how other countries approach knowledge transfer, share ideas and learn from each other, so that we can deliver an even better service to levy payers.

Topics for discussion will include health initiatives, the challenges and solutions of environmental legislation and how different countries engage with their producers.
Representatives from France, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and The Netherlands will be attending, and we hope to attract people from even more EU countries once the hub is established.

Look out for the outcomes of this exciting initiative on the BPEX website and in next month's issue of Pig World, or contact the KT team directly: kt@bpex.org.uk

Pork in Foodservice Report Due
A new Pork in Foodservice Report is due out next month (July) covering pork and sausages only and is based on research among 1000 consumers who had eaten out of the home in the preceding 4 weeks.

The report looks at their attitudes to pork and sausages on menus, how they would like the dishes to be cooked and what they should be served with. What price they are prepared to pay versus other menu items and when in the week they are most likely to order pork and sausages from the menus.

The results showed 89% of consumers are prepared to order pork when eating out of home and 76% of consumers who do not eat pork at home would be prepared to order it out of home, while 73% of consumers who have eaten pork out of the home would be likely to order a pork dish again when dining out of the home.

For sausages, 78% of consumers are prepared to order them when eating out of the home however only 51% of consumers who do not eat sausages in the home would be prepared to order them when out of the home.

International News

Smithfield Setback
Blaming financial losses, Smithfield Foods has announced it will delay its plan to phase out gestation stalls for pregnant sows.

Smithfield unveiled its change in plans in its 2009 annual report, according to a report in The Virginian-Pilot newspaper.

The world's largest pork processor and producer announced in January 2007 that it would replace the stalls with group housing, phasing in the new accommodations over a decade's time. The company's decision earned praise from animal rights groups.

Although Smithfield already has converted to group housing at three farms, it no longer expects to meet its 2017 overall deadline. The transition would be expected to cost about $300 million, and Smithfield lost $190 million in the 2009 fiscal year.

Export Bulletin
On the European market leg prices are increasing. Prices on all other cuts remain unchanged. The German quote is increasing at present and it is a clear sign of the fact that the slaughterhouses receive too little supplies.

Large quantities of live slaughter pigs are being sent from Germany to Central and East Europe because the significant fall in slaughterings in this area impacted high demand. To read the full bulletin, click here.

International Prices
For the latest international prices, click here.