WE’RE ON THE MOVE
From Monday the new address will be BPEX, Stoneleigh Park, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, CV8 2TL
Tel 02476 692051.
A complete list of the new phone numbers for all BPEX staff can be found at www.bpex.org.uk.

NEW HOME MEANS NEW WEEKLY
The BPEX Weekly will be sent out in a new format using an entirely new system from next Friday (Jul 31). If you do not receive the Weekly please let me know (jon.bullock@bpex.org.uk) and I will amend the lists.

Finding Latest Feed Info
Wheat prices in the UK have continued to weaken reaching £106/t by Thursday. French analysts, Strategie Grains have kept 2009/10 EU27 wheat production relatively unchanged from previous estimates at 126.5Mt (140Mt 08/09). However, due to lower industrial wheat usage, closing stocks are seen to rise by 2Mt from previous estimate to 15.5Mt (17Mt 08/09). Soyabean prices have continued to be affected by China’s sale of 500kt of soyabean from its state reserves in anticipation of a larger US crop entering the market in the Autumn. Consequently nearby prices remained at a 3 ½ month low of £214/t by Thursday. Click here for more

Marketing News

Christmas – Just Around the Corner!!
For fifteen consumer journalists Christmas came early this year with a special delivery from Love Pork. The package contained the new 'Glorious Gammon' recipe booklet, a 'Master Butchers Guide to Gammon' produced by BPEX’s own Master Butcher along with a press release - all in a Christmas Hamper filled with a quality standard premium gammon joint plus all the ingredients required to make one of the new recipes from the brochure. The aim of the activity is to inspire journalists to not only consider featuring Gammon in their Christmas edition publications but primarily to promote QSM gammon and the expertise available within BPEX to add value to any features they might consider. This formed the first part of a project to promote QSM Gammon this Christmas, and though Christmas is many months away, the timing was crucial, as magazines will be planning their Christmas issues right now. Links to the publications, click here for gammon and here for the recipe booklet.

Sausage Week Latest
As part of the countdown to British Sausage Week 12 short lead journalists (ie weekly or bi-weekly publication) have received a BSW Takeaway delivery with brand new recipe photography and ingredients to make 'Toffee'd Sausage Apples', a fun family recipe targeted at magazines like Bella and Take a Break. All magazines will be tracked for recipe coverage and/or mentions of BSW.

Chef of the Year Crowned
‘Free-range tenderloin of pork with summer vegetables and mustard crackling’ helped chef Alan Paton take the title of Chef of the Year 2009 at an industry championship.

 Alan who is based in Suffolk, won the title in the tough competition which challenged him to cook the dish in 45 minutes with a maximum budget of £1.85 per portion.

He was the only chef to finish his dish from scratch within the time frame given. Alan said:

“This was a tense and challenging competition. But fortunately the time frame, the budget, the established audience in front of me and the fact that I had to go back on stage to demonstrate how to make a home-cooked ham after the competition didn’t throw me at all!

Love Pork On-Line Competition
In support of the 'Not the Ashes' BBQ campaign the lovepork.co.uk website is hosting a competition to win a stylish bucket BBQ and chef's apron and hat.
 
By providing us with your favourite BBQ'ing tips winners will be picked weekly until the end of the Ashes and featured on the website. Asda will be displaying the Love Pork BBQ Guides on their butcher counters from the end of next week. For more information, click here.

Knowledge Transfer

Online AML2
If you can send a text message then you can cut out movement paperwork BPEX working with Animal Health and Trading Standards have developed a way to send all your AML2 and FCI information electronically cutting out all that form filling and duplication. We have successfully trialled the system over the past 4 months with a range of businesses and would now like to invite other online FCI users supplying BQAP abattoirs to give the system a go. Click here for more details

Tip of the Week: Hot Air Balloons
Have you registered your outdoor pig unit with the British Balloon and Airship Club? As part of their Code of Conduct if you register your outdoor pig herd it will be marked as a "sensitive area" on Ballooning maps for the pilots to be aware of.

If you have balloons going directly over your outdoor units, make a note of the time, date and colour/advertising features of the balloon and contact the BBAC. For more details on how to contact the BBAC and register your unit go to: http://www.bbac.org/contact2 or email information@bbac.org.

Free Manure Analysis
BPEX can arrange, for a limited period only, for manures and slurries to be analysed for nutrient content free of charge as part of this project. In order to get involved please contact BPEX (kt@bpex.org.uk) with the number of samples you would like to submit; bags and bottles will be provided. If you have already submitted samples data will be available shortly. Contact Nigel Penlington if you have any queries.

Action for Productivity Library
A new online library of Action for Productivity sheets is to be launched soon on the BPEX website.

The sheets can be downloaded and printed, or ordered in hard copy and there will also be a facility to take clippings of relevant sections of each one. It is planned to have the new facility available in the next few weeks

National News:

What is Good Biosecurity?
UK - Pig producers and their vets talk a lot about biosecurity... but what actually is it? "When it comes to determining what is good biosecurity, it's all a bit hazy, said Richard Lister.

As a result the taskforce health group he chairs has asked Zoe Davies, Sam Hoste and Stan Done to look at best practice, and to prepare guidance notes. "The idea is that we eventually come up with something that might be suitable for an assurance scheme module.

"We felt this was an opportunity to do something positive, and with Cost and Responsibility Sharing in the offing will demonstrate we are actually doing something, not just talking about it."

Latest Publications
Two new publications are out aimed at the livestock industry. The first is A Pocketful of Meat Facts 2009, the 5th edition of this pocket-sized yearbook which contains a wealth of annual 2007 and 2008 statistics for beef, sheep, pigs and poultry with more than 50 tables. It costs £12 UK Standard (10% discount for 10 copies or more), £15 Non-UK.

The second is the UK Yearbook 2009 - meat and livestock which is an invaluable reference for the meat industry, providing a comprehensive set of statistical data across all livestock sectors. 

The Yearbook contains details of last year’s farm enterprise costings in England, as well as an explanation of how the Common Agricultural Policy currently applies to the UK. This costs £18 EBLEX levy payer, £40 UK Standard, £50 Non-UK

Importance of Food Security
The UK has a "moral duty" to produce more food such as fruit, vegetables and grains to prevent the world from going hungry, MPs said today.

With predictions that global food production will need to double by mid-century, the UK must help avert food shortages and the political instability they could lead to.

But boosting production needs to be sustainable in order to tackle climate change and conserve the natural world, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee urged. Click here to see the report.

NADIS Latest - Lactational Oestrus
Occasional reports are received from Nadis veterinary surgeons of sows showing oestrus whilst still lactating even with conventional weaning ages of 4 weeks.  The condition is seen in both indoor and outdoor systems but often due to different causes and following a different pattern.

Indoors, it tends to arise sporadically in individual sows that have spontaneously dried up, or lost a litter but can occur on several sows where the practice of split weaning – removing 2 or 3 of the best pigs in the litter a week early – occurs.

In the outdoor situation litter desertion, either associated with extreme weather or due to behavioural mismothering , can trigger oestrus in an individual but in the paddock situation a sow on heat can induce similar changes in pen mates who are still suckling normally. Clearly sows which come into oestrus prior to weaning will then not come on again for 3 weeks usually leading to delayed weaning service intervals (wsi). If sows are seen with delayed wsi, it is worth considering lactational oestrus as the cause, which will often not be spotted by stockmen without prompting.

International News

Hot Dog Lawsuit
The Cancer Project has filed a lawsuit in Essex County, N.J, asking the court on behalf of three state residents to compel hot dog makers to put a cancer warning label on packages, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The group, a branch of Washington, D.C.-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, wants the label to read: "Warning: Consuming hot dogs and other processed meats increases the risk of cancer."

The Cancer Project is seeking class-action status for the suit. Defendants include Nathan's Famous, Kraft Foods (which owns Oscar Mayer), Sara Lee, Marathon Enterprises and ConAgra Foods (which owns Hebrew National), the Times said.

Nutritionists said in response that the science is more complicated than the Cancer Project implies, and also that such a warning label would not have much effect on public health.
In a statement, the American Meat Institute dubbed the lawsuit a "nuisance."

"We hope the court will move quickly to review the science affirming the safety of hot dogs and processed meats and dismiss this lawsuit, " AMI President J. Patrick Boyle said in a release. "While PCRM argues for warning labels on our safe products, the labels would be more appropriately placed on PCRM's Web sites and press releases to alert consumers to their true agenda."

US Pork Exports Down
Pork exports in May, at about 307 million pounds, were 36 percent below May 2008 exports, with Japan importing 15 percent less, Mexico importing 3 percent less and Russia importing 1 percent less than a year ago, according to USDA.

But it's likely that May exports — particularly to Mexico and Russia — did not register the full negative impacts of H1N1-related slowdowns in demand for U.S. pork, given that the disease did not come to the world's attention until late April, according to USDA's monthly Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook report.

Canadian Listeria Report
A slow response from Canadian government officials and poor communication with the public were among many factors identified by Sheila Weatherill, who was appointed by the federal government to lead an independent investigation, as causes behind Maple Leaf Foods' listeriosis outbreak last summer that killed 22 people.

Weatherill, who formerly led the public health system in Edmonton, Alberta, offered 57 recommendations to improve food safety in her report. Among those suggestions were that higher-risk plants be tested more frequently than others; that Canada's chief public health officer has a larger role during foodborne illness outbreaks; and that meat processing equipment be designed with an eye toward limiting the spread of pathogens.

International Prices
For the latest international prices, click here.

Sizzling Sausage Ad
A sexually suggestive advertising campaign for pork sausages has been criticised by the industry watchdog.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld complaints against innuendo-filled radio adverts for Mattesons smoked sausages.
It said the adverts, which asked listeners where they would like to "stick it", should not have aired when children were likely to be listening. The ASA rejected 21 complaints that the advertisements were offensive.