Finding Latest Feed Info
Brazil’s Agriculture Ministry has cut its forecast of the current soyabean crop. Recent dry weather in Southern states has reduced the crop size to 57.6Mt, from the previous estimate of 58.1Mt. Click here

In the latest HGCA feed ingredient price survey, FEMAS soyameal, ex-mill Liverpool, increased by £7/t over the week at £324/t. CBOT soyabean futures rose by £7.81/t over the week, to close Friday at £276.59/t.

Bacon is Lording It
The Lords authorities have come under fire for serving Dutch bacon in one of their restaurants.  Chairman of committees Lord Brabazon of Tara told peers that all outlets served only English pork and bacon "except the river restaurant that serves Dutch bacon". 

He added at question time: "This is because English bacon at £6.71 per kilo is considerably more expensive than Dutch at £4.85 per kilo.  "If we were to serve English bacon the cost of a rasher would increase from 25p to 45p because of the higher price and lower yield."  

Labour's Lord Hoyle said: "I and many others argue it shouldn't be a matter of price and we urge the British consumer to buy British bacon because of the higher welfare standards that are applied in this country."  Lord Brabazon replied "It is fine for the Lord Hoyle and people like myself to buy British bacon for ourselves, but when we are dealing with other people we do have to offer value for money". 

Publications Catalogue
To see the full range of Marketing and KT resources, publications and leaflets available, many for free, download the catalogue, complete the order form attached and send in to BPEX today. http://smartstore.bpex.org.uk/index.asp?298427

Butchers Roadshow
From the series of roadshows held around the country, all seven overall finalists, one from each region, sent in their products this week for a final round of judging by a panel of consumers and industry experts.  This was a really tough decision because they were all worthy winners with a variety of excellently produced products. A decision had to made though, of who should be crowned the National Champion of the 2008-2009 Roadshow series.  This person or company will be announced at the presentation luncheon, to be held at Butchers Hall on 3rd June.

The contenders were: East of England – Mike Maloney Country Butchers & Bakers Ltd with a  speciality ‘Chicken & Ham Pie with Stuffing & Cranberry’; South West – Colyton Butchers with their traditional ‘West Country Pork Sausage’; North East – J A Mounfield & Son, with their speciality hot eating ‘Chicken & Ham Pie’; East Midlands – Westlands Farm Shop and their ‘Traditional Pork Pie’; West Midlands – H Dayus Family Butchers with their ‘Traditional Pork Sausage’; North West - Boxleys of Wombourne with ‘Hoop Pork Pie’; South of England – Gaterells of Felpham and their ready meal ‘Pork Fillet with Apricot Stuffing’

Knowledge Transfer

Tip of the Week: Yoyo Dieting Bad For Sows
The message from Denmark is that good sows do not lurch from fat to thin; they stay in good condition all the way through life. Managing optimum body condition on your unit is key to achieving a good performance from the herd. If body reserves are not depleted so much during lactation, gestation becomes a recovery period until it all starts again. Regular body condition scoring can provide you with information for sow curves especially in summer and winter.
For more on body condition see Action for Productivity 20.

Milk Line Supplementation
With increasing sow prolificacy, it is now common for sows to farrow litters of 14 or more piglets, although the sow herself may not have 14 functional teats. This means that the surplus piglets have to be cross fostered (if spare places are available) or artificially reared.

Given the large litter size now expected from sows and the competition at the udder there is a renewed interest in the potential of the Milk Line system where piglets have access to milk replacer ad-lib from birth. Anecdotal evidence from two commercial systems would suggest higher numbers weaned (+0.4 pigs/litter) and lower within litter variation in systems where 10.7+ pigs are weaned per litter. It is also noted that the benefits at weaning are seen to continue post weaning.

Further details and conclusions of this project, along with many more projects and activities, will be reported in the forthcoming BPEX annual technical report.

Regional NPA meeting – Diss
How English pig producers beat wasting disease. Don’t miss the E Anglia NPA meeting on 15th June in Suffolk, starting at 4pm and followed with a buffet supper. It will be about "the marketplace" and "PCV2" vaccine results, plus NPA affairs. For more information contact Zoe Davies. Venue: Broome Grange, Broome, near Eye Suffolk IP23 8AP.

National News:

Pigs Unearth Bomb
Army bomb disposal experts detonated a First World War bomb today - after it was unearthed by a herd of pigs. Members of the Explosive Ordnance Department were called to the field between Devizes and Calne, in Wiltshire, to examine the object last night.

Farmer Cameron Naughton, from West End Farm, near Bishops Cannings, discovered the bomb yesterday with colleague John Russ when one of their pigs dug it up.

Mr Naughton told the Wiltshire Gazette: "John Russ and myself were attending the pigs when John noticed the mortar one of the pigs had rooted up. Having had TA training he said 'I think you've got a bomb here, Cameron' and we called the police immediately. The pigs have dug up all kinds of stuff over the years. I am just glad that a tractor or a plough didn't drive over it."

Disposal experts sandbagged the bomb and closed off the road between the A361 and the A4 last night, before returning this morning to detonate the device.

Pig and Poultry Live
The new event was a hit with industry. It incorporated debate, interactive voting and technical workshops delivered a very different business day for over 350 supply chain delegates.

The key messages coming out of the day were that industry needs to focus on effective consumer marketing to highlight UK product value and work together to achieve long term stable pricing across the supply chain.

ABN played a key role with the RASE in the development of this new event concept.
Angela Booth, Commercial Services Director said: "We set out to do something quite different for the industry following the success of the forums and workshops at the 2008 Pig and Poultry Fair. Any new activity brings with it an element of risk, but we were determined to support the industry in an innovative way."

Adam Henson, the BBC farming correspondent, expertly steered the panel, audience and voting groups of producers, processors and shoppers through the interactive debate. This instant analysis of audience voting data has not been done before in the industry.

Anaerobic Digestion Workshop
Farming Futures is working with Green Power conferences to host an expert workshop in the issues surrounding on-farm anaerobic digestion installation. 

The workshop will take place on 30th June, the afternoon before the main Biogas conference – for details click here - at The New Connaught Rooms, 61-65 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5DA.

We have been able to secure 30 reduced rate tickets for farmers who would like to attend this expert session. The cost is £99 which will then also give access to the main conference.
As well as the chance to quiz some leading technology providers we will hear from experts in the areas of:

• Planning issues 
• Environmental permits 
• District Networks and grid connection 
• Power Purchase Agreements
  There will be an opportunity to discuss some of the specific details surrounding installations, and get first hand information. The session will start with registration and lunch at 12.30, and run through to 17.30.

Please note this event is aimed at farmers who are looking for this technical level of information. To secure the reduced rate entry please contact farming@forumforthefuture.org for details.

Levy Board Appoints Chief Scientist
Professor Ian Crute is to become the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board's first Chief Scientist.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has appointed Professor Crute with the brief to deliver collaboration and co-operation across its £15,000,000 annual investment of levy funds in research and knowledge transfer programmes. He takes up the post in early September 2009 and will be part of the Senior Executive Team reporting to the AHDB Chief Executive.

Professor Crute is currently the Director of Rothamsted Research (formerly the Institute of Arable Crops Research) with overall responsibility for all scientific, operational, commercial and external liaison activities of the institute, a post he has held since 1999.
(Further biographical details are in the notes to editors).

AHDB Chairman John Bridge said: "I am delighted we have someone of Ian's calibre and ability joining AHDB. R&D and knowledge transfer is the single biggest area of spend for AHDB. This appointment is critical in order to encourage cross-sector scientific connections and collaboration to the benefit of our levy payers and to agriculture and horticulture as a whole.

"We are entering a new era for food production. Globally we need to double production by 2050 with no extra land, we need to nurture our resources - soil, water, energy - and we need to protect our environment as well as address the challenges that climate change will bring such as new plant and animal diseases."

"These are big challenges for the farming and scientific community at a time when Government funding for R&D is declining. This makes the role that AHDB can play more critical than ever."

Professor Ian Crute said: "I am very excited at the prospect of joining AHDB. It is my conviction that AHDB and its six sector Boards have the potential to play an increasingly  influential role in orchestrating the way in which public and private funds are put to work to deliver the new science-based products, practices and policies which the agricultural and horticultural sectors require going forward."

International News

Smithfield Not To Blame
In a letter to Smithfield Foods employees, CEO C. Larry Pope said additional testing conducted by the Mexican government of the company's pig herd in Veracruz turned up negative for H1N1 or any other virus, contradicting local accusations that the farm was the source of the outbreak.

"These findings, which are consistent with our earlier communications to you, validate what we believed from the very beginning: that the recent subtype of H1N1 influenza virus affecting humans did not originate from [Granjas Carroll de Mexico]," Pope wrote.

Genetically Engineered Wheat
Farm groups from the world's top wheat-exporting nations said they had reached an agreement to support a "synchronised" commercialisation of biotech traits in wheat.

Though any market roll-out of a genetically altered wheat would be years away, the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) said it had signed up grain growers in Canada and Australia in a deal that would align the nations against any international backlash if and when a biotech wheat was introduced. The united front also was intended as an invitation to biotech companies to push forward with biotech wheat development.

"This is a big, long-term issue for producers," said NAWG CEO Daren Coppock. "We agree it is in our best interest to work together. And we are trying to send a strong signal to developers so they can move ahead."
The key food crop currently lacks any genetically altered seed options, unlike corn and soybeans, which have been tinkered with by a variety of biotech agricultural companies. Biotech strains of corn and soybeans that resist pests and tolerate herbicide field treatments now dominate the U.S. market and are growing in share around the world.

Wheat farmers who have eyed advancements made in other crops say similar genetically altered opportunities for wheat could help them increase yields and become more profitable.

Tops on the wish list are drought-tolerant wheat and wheat that makes more efficient use of nitrogen.

Export Bulletin
For the latest Export Bulletin, click here.

International Prices
For the latest international prices, click here.

Tailpiece – Pig Chasing Cancelled
A traditional pig chasing event in Mumbai has been scrapped this year due to the fear of swine flu, it was reported today.

Each year in the second week of May, a community of East Indian Christians in the city celebrates St Roque's Feast in the suburb of Kalina.

During the event, a pig is let loose within a circle of men and each try to catch it.
A resident Savio Kinny told Indian newspaper DNA: "The trick is to catch the pig by the leg. The one who catches the pig, gets to take it home."

But the event was cancelled this year due to the fear of swine flu.