BPEX Weekly

Who will win this year’s David Black Award? Go to the BPEX website for a nomination form.

Knowledge Transfer

Tip of the Week: Holiday Time
Plan holiday cover and ensure clear work instructions are to hand for relief staff, this will aid the smooth running of things while regular staff are away. Consider getting cover staff to shadow those they will be covering for to make sure they are clear about their responsibilities.

Getting to Grips With IPPC
Are the conditions being set for IPPC permits way off kilter? That’s certainly the view of many pig producers who are bewildered by the inconsistent advice they are receiving from the Environment Agency (EA).

However, the majority of farmers are reporting that initial contact with local EA officers has been less of a trial than they had feared. There are inevitably issues of inconsistency and examples of what could be considered impractical or just down right ridiculous advice.

BPEX environment expert Nigel Penlington thinks there are ways to make getting to grips with IPPC easier.

According to Nigel: “Some of the key issues to consider are understanding permit conditions, the pollution inventory, improvement plans and best available techniques (BAT) to comply with the conditions.

Also a little bit of lateral thinking can help make conforming to IPPC less arduous.”
Nigel’s hints and tips about conforming to IPPC:

• Portable tanks do not need to be bunded
• Keeping records can make life easier - many of those needed already exist, don’t duplicate, but make sure they are available
• The Pollution Inventory looks daunting - BPEX has templates to help you fill in the paperwork)
• Waste transfer notes - the easiest thing is to keep on file and keep a running tally
• Oils, plastics, scrap metal and batteries are all regarded as waste, however, redundant farm machinery is not
• A tidy yard and an obvious diligent biosecurity system will make a good first impression when the environment officer comes to visit
• If you’re pro-active it may save you time having to do unnecessary work
• Water metering is an easy and inexpensive way to measure usage
• Work instructions are helpful for staff to understand IPPC conditions
• 50% of slurry is often wasted water on farm
• Mark drains - red for slurry, yellow for less harmful and blue for clean.

Cut Days to Slaughter
At a health meeting in Oxford the farm manager of Blanchard Enterprises Ltd, Steve Newing, raised issues he was having with the pigs dunging in the lying areas and wallowing in the liquid feed. He wanted to improve the finishing environment to overcome these issues.

As a result of some simple monitoring, and implementation of some changes to the kennels, days to slaughter have been reduced by 3-4 days. For full details download the case study here.

BPEX Blog
Have you checked out the Knowledge Transfer Team’s online Blog recently? Find out what the Team have been up to and about activities going on in your area by clicking here.

Marketing News

Pigs Are Worth It Latest
Meat Trades Journal is featuring a wide range of Pork and Pigs Are Worth It articles in the latest issue.  This will be the first showing of the latest advertising, the ‘Slashed’ ad along with a three-page feature on the pork industry plus their regular campaign page.

Fresh Magazine
On sale now, cover date is August. Features a three-page feature on p90, along with a Love Pork advertorial featuring 3 summer recipes from of our latest booklet ‘The Taste of Tradition’. 

Briefing Westminster
The annual Westminster event which includes, barbecued pork, is being held next week where BPEX and key parts of the pig industry have the opportunity to discuss issues with the full set of Defra ministers, senior civil servants, MPs and members of the House of Lords. 

BPEX will have a Pigs Are Worth It information stand along with a new Pig Issue information leaflet, which will be given to all attendees.

Foodservice Booklet
A new recipe booklet aimed at school cooks has been produced, called ‘Great its Lunchtime’.  Featuring 10 nutritionally balanced pork recipes for school children, it is available on request from 01908 844114 or email foodservice@bpex.org.uk.  It also contains general information on the Pork Quality Standard Mark, the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative (PSFPI) and each recipe features a table of its nutritional values.

National News:

British Pigs MRSA Free
First quarter results from a Europe-wide probe has not uncovered MRSA in United Kingdom pigs. Nevertheless there is a potential issue of migrant workers bringing it onto pig farms.

The Defra antimicrobial resistance committee will therefore ask the Pig Veterinary Society to provide advice to pig producers so they can ensure their biosecurity protocols consider MRSA. The American Society of Microbiology is planning to hold an MRSA conference in Britain next year, which will be followed by a one-day seminar for vet and health practitioners.

New Animal Health Head
Catherine Brown has been appointed Chief Executive of Animal Health. Formerly Chief Operating Officer, Catherine succeeds Professor Steve Edwards, who has acted as interim Chief Executive since March. As Chief Executive, Catherine will be responsible to Defra Ministers and to Ministers in Scotland and Wales for the delivery of Animal Health's annual performance targets.

NADIS Latest -Stocking Density
NADIS reports over the last 2 years have frequently commented on overstocking of weaners and growers, predominantly the result of excess sow production.  The higher the stocking density, the slower growth is likely to be as well as precipitating disease which further slows growth.  A vicious circle is thus created. 

If mortality levels in feeding pigs are to fall on the back of PCV2 vaccination, this will become even more of a problem.  A reduction of 5 percentage points on grower mortality will effectively give an extra weeks production on a breeder feeder farm unless it is offset by growth improvement. Service targets for the breeding herd should be set in accordance with space provision at different ages.  Otherwise excess pigs should be sold off.

Join BPHS
Have you joined the BPHS yet? The new one has just started. It provides members, their vets, abattoirs and funding partners with regular, objective and detailed post-mortem health assessments from pigs submitted to 14 specialist pig abattoirs in England. To date the BPHS team of specialist pig vets have reported on more than 12,000 consignments of pigs.

A survey of members found all farmers surveyed discussed the BPHS reports with their vets when reviewing pig health and performance. More than 60% of them and 80% of vets have been taking action on farms to tackle health issues using information from their reports.

You can find out more about the scheme by logging onto the BPEX website or calling 01463 233184. There is also a DVD available explaining how the scheme works, which can be obtained by calling 01908 844734.

Export Report
Get the latest export report by clicking here.

Everything But the Squeak!
The TV programme the F Word did the pig industry a favour or two in this weekend’s broadcast. Tom Parker-Bowles ate his way through a pig from nose to tail proving you can eat everything but the squeak. The initial shot of the pig being slaughtered may not have been for the squeamish but the rest was a well-balanced item which concluded with a plea to eat more of the British pig.

International News:

US Pig Prices
Predicting live hog prices not seen since the liquidation of 1998, Credit Suisse food stocks analyst Robert Moskow said prices could plummet to $10 per hundredweight given the likely increase in number of hogs coming to slaughter this fall at packing houses already running at capacity.

Moskow said in a note to investors that more hogs will go to slaughter this fall because the herd is too large, citing USDA's June Hogs and Pigs report that showed a 5.8 percent increase in the herd. By comparison, market analysts had expected the report to show about a 4.6 percent increase.

Warning on GM Zero-tolerance
EU food industry body CIAA has joined feed producers and livestock farmers in calling for an end to the 'uncertainty' over non EU-approved GM traces in foodstuffs, suggesting the EU’s current zero-tolerance approach be replaced with a 0.5% tolerance level to avoid crippling extra costs to the European supply chain. The current direct costs of detecting EU-unapproved GMOs in the soybean and derivative supply chain have been estimated by CIAA at between €1 billion and €2.8 billion. 

But these costs are set to rise significantly as new GM traits are introduced in US and other global markets. Peter Brabeck, chairman of Nestle, said European concerns over the health risks of GM were unfounded, given that such foods had been eaten safely by Americans for decades.

US Call for Help
The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) is calling on USDA to take steps to provide relief from high feed costs. NPPC in a meeting with USDA Secretary Ed Schafer asked USDA to:

• Release immediately and without penalty non-environmentally sensitive acres from the Conservation Reserve Program.
• Allow crop farmers to plant (at their own expense) a harvestable crop on those acres that could not be planted this spring due to weather condition, even though the farmer may have collected a disaster payment on the ground. This action also may require congressional approval, and we will ask Congress to act.
• Support a waiver of the biofuels mandate (Renewable Fuels Standard) for ethanol as requested by Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
• Support the elimination of, or significant reduction in, the ethanol blender's tax credit.
• Support the elimination of, or significant reduction in, the tariff on ethanol imported into the U.S.

According to NPPC, “If more crops can’t be planted and if there is no relief from the ethanol mandate, feed costs will go even higher than the record levels we’re seeing today, many livestock producers will go out of business, meat supplies will fall and retail meat prices will rise. That wouldn’t be good for the livestock industry, American consumers or the U.S. economy.”

International Prices
Click here for the latest international prices