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The BPEX Weekly is taking a Christmas break and will be back on Friday January 8. We wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. See you in 2010.
The BPEX Team
Marketing News
LovePork Latest
The LovePork website has a You Tube page where all the sites video’s are stored and available to view – http://www.youtube.com/user/LovePorkUK
The latest ones to be uploaded are the video’s from the recent Sausage Week activity and of course the Gammon one is already on there. If there are any pork or pig related consumer friendly video’s that would be of interest to upload please contact [email protected]
The video is currently running on all the following websites.
UK Parents Lounge
The Foodie List
The foodie list also posted it on their twitter
A home of my own
Dine Online
Yahoo
Primary Times
Easier
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Knowledge Transfer
Tip of the Week: Take Stock
Christmas is nearly upon us, followed shortly by the New Year. Take this opportunity to review herd performance records and set targets for the coming year. Why not make use of the BPEX 2010 wall calendar which has space to record some of your KPIs? If you haven’t yet got a calendar contact BPEX: [email protected].
A paper has just been published on in-herd transmission of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). BPEX Veterinary Projects Manager Charlotte Evans, looked at a mathematical model of a farrow-finish pig herd that was developed and used to investigate the within-herd transmission dynamics of PRRSV, and to examine patterns of on-farm persistence and fade-out.
The model was structured to represent the management of a typical European pig herd and was run for various isolation practices of purchased gilts, contact structure, herd size and the frequency of re-introduction of infectious gilts.
With a herd size of 327 sows with identical management, fade-out of virus occurred within 4 weeks in 21.9% of simulations. Without isolation of gilts from sows, fade-out within 250 days decreased from 81.6% to 14.3%.
Fade-out of virus was most likely to occur within breeding females before virus reached young stock. Persistence was more likely once PRRSV was present in piglets which in turn infected rearing-pigs.
The probability of persistence was higher with increased herd size, increased contact between different age groups and increased re-introduction of infectious gilts. The ability of the model to capture the variability in cross-sectional, age-related serological patterns suggests that the processes of re-introduction, persistence and fade-out of PRRSV play critical roles in PRRSV epidemiology.
To see an abstract of the article, click here.
Pre-budget Headlines
VAT confirmed to revert to 17.5% at the New Year. Flat rate schemes have been re-calculated: the flat rate for farming is 6% and for agricultural services is 10%.
Corporation Tax small companies’ rate stays at 21% for 2010-11. The planned increase will not be made.
Empty property rates relief will continue for 2010/11 for properties with a rateable value below £18,000.
Business Tax Payment Support Scheme (spreading tax payments) allowing the deferral and phasing of tax payments is to be continued indefinitely.
More money for renewable energy – Energy efficiency packages for householders will continue (insulation grants etc). A household boiler scrappage scheme is to be introduced with a £400 incentive to trade in a G rated boiler (to be based on the car scrappage scheme). Where householders sell home-generated electricity to the National Grid on feed-in tariffs, the income received will be tax free.
Fuel duty will rise by 1ppl in April.
Climate Change Levy reduced rate will change from 20% to 35% with effect from April 2011.
BPEX Environment Projects Manager Charles Baines has passed his Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV) examination and will become a Fellow of the CAAV. Congratulations Charles!
Charles joined BPEX in August 2009 having previously worked with Peter Crichton FRICS FAAV as an assistant land agent. His earlier career included a few years in the army before gaining a diploma in Pig Production & Management by correspondence with Bishop Burton College while working for Geo E Gittus & Son near Bury St Edmunds.
He now works with Nigel Penlington on a range of environmental issues from nitrate regulations to renewable energy technologies.
BPEX has produced two calculators to help pig farmers complete the calculations required by Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) regulations.
These Excel spreadsheets will ease the burden for all pig producers, with one calculator for batch systems and another for continuous throughput systems.
By 30 April 2010, farmers with land in existing NVZs must work out how much nitrogen their livestock produce while those in new NVZs who produce slurry must calculate how much slurry storage they need to comply with the restrictions. Slurry producers in existing NVZs should already have done the latter calculation.
“Producers have already received the information and guidelines on NVZ calculations, but there are many who have yet to tackle them. Now is the time to get them done, and these calculators make it much easier,” said BPEX Environment Projects Manager Charles Baines.
“Farmers will be able to use the spreadsheet results to demonstrate a record of calculations if Environment Agency auditors ask to see them.”
The calculations require farmers to use Defra’s standard industry figures. But Defra based their figures on a typical continuous flow system and it has proved difficult for producers with batch systems to adjust their calculations as required.
This is one of the reasons BPEX produced the calculators: to help both batch and continuous flow producers do the sums as simply as possible.
To access the calculators, producers need to click here then click on the calculator applicable to their unit:
BPEX is inviting everyone who works in the allied industry to a BPEX Update. All are welcome to come and find out what BPEX has in store for pig industry organisations and their customers over the next three years.
The BPEX Update is a brand new initiative with three free events scheduled for January 2010:
12th – Ramada Inn, Wetherby; 13th – Brome Grange, Nr Eye; 14th – Holiday Inn, Swindon
The afternoon will give attendees opportunity to meet the local BPEX team, find out what is happening in their region and learn more about the funding opportunities available to help them support their customers.
Please ensure you register to secure your place at the event: call Tess Howe on 07779 321078 or email: [email protected]
Agenda
14:00 Working together – funding and opportunities available
14:40 Knowledge Transfer Team – what are we up to in your area?
15:20 BPEX Strategy – what does it mean to you?
16:00 Feedback/discussion
(Full details of the venue will be sent out when you register)
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National News:
Assessment Dates
Assessment dates for the period January to July 2010 are now available on the BPEX website Click here to see them.
Chef Raymond Blanc praised the British pork served at the 18th birthday Gala dinner of Leaf Environment and Farming (LEAF).
The pork was from specially selected Hampshire cross pigs provided by Uncle Henry’s in Lincolnshire.
Guest speaker at the dinner, Raymond described the pork as ‘delicious’ and the dish as ‘inspirational’.
The meal was prepared by the chef from the Royal Overseas League Club.
The board of Quality Meat Scotland has this week submitted to Cabinet Secretary, Richard Lochhead, a recommendation to increase levy rates. A response from the Cabinet Secretary is expected before the end of 2009. For more information, click here.
If it says just “British” on the packet it will be just British in the packet – a new code of practice on the labelling of pork and pork products is to be drawn up following agreement by pig producers, processors, major food retailers, and the food service sector.
When introduced, companies who have signed up to the code will clearly display the origin of the pork on the front of the packet. Meanwhile, a declaration that the meat is, for example, “British”, will mean that the animal was born, reared, and slaughtered in Britain.
There will also be an end to ambiguous terms such as “Produced in the UK” as the origin of the meat will be declared.
The agreement was reached by members of the Pig Meat Supply Chain Task Force which was brought together by Defra to address issues concerning the sector including labelling, environmental performance and competitiveness. To read the full story, click here.
Producers who belong to the British Pig Health Scheme will notice on their reports that one condition recorded is pericarditis. This refers to inflammation of the sac in which the heart is retained which in the long term leads to scarring and constriction of the heart. It is often, though not always, seen in association with pleurisy in the carcass – the latter referring to inflammation of the surface of the lungs and chest such that lungs stick to the rib cage.
The causes of pericarditis are multiple and usually occur early in life. If this condition is seen at slaughter it is likely that some pigs that are found dead on farm will also be suffering from it. In such cases investigation of the true prevalence is valuable – achieved by on farm post mortem examination coupled with slaughter data – to be able to develop a cost effective control programme.
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International News:
Tican to Quit Poland?
Tican’s adventure in Poland has now cost the company more than €15m, which equals just under 14 Eurocent per kg slaughtered pig meat, says the latest Export Report. So Tican is preparing to sell its activities in Poland
and the processing business Nove.
To see the full Export Report, click here.
As part of the PIGCAS research project (Attitudes, practices and state of pig castration in Europe), a team of European scientists has just demonstrated that, of the 125 million male pigs slaughtered each year in Europe, 77% are castrated without anaesthetic.
The main conclusion of the study, that forms part of the PIGCAS project, is that these animals are castrated directly by the livestock farmers, without anaesthetic and in some cases, without respecting the European legislation.
This investigation, which appears in the most recent issue of the journal Animal, confirms that some countries fail to comply with the regulation for these practices, given that the European legislation states that castration without anaesthetic must be carried out within the first seven days of the animal’s life. After this period it must be done by a vet using anaesthetic.
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International Prices
For the latest international price, click here.
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