BPEX Weekly: February 5, 2010

Marketing News

Prime Pork Cuts

Go to the Prime Cuts section of the lovepork.co.uk website, where over 30 prime pork cuts are featured.  By hovering over each cut a small pop-up box will appear which provides a range of information from nutritional content to suggested recipes suitable for that cut.  Click here for more.

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This is the last chance to enter the Bacon Connoisseurs Week product competition.  Deadline for entries has been extended to Wednesday 10th Feb, click here to download an entry form.

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Knowledge Transfer

Tip of the Week: Biosecurity

Is your biosecurity protocol up to scratch? Biosecurity is the set of practical measures you take to limit the spread of infectious diseases, both within a farm and from one farm to another, or from elsewhere eg abattoir. Reducing the spread of disease will help to maintain the health of your unit, reduce the costs of disease and maintain productivity. Don’t underestimate the value of good biosecurity! See Action for Productivity sheets 10 (C&D) and 13 (Biosecurity) for advice.

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Households and communities who install generating technologies such as small wind turbines and solar panels will from April be entitled to claim payments for the low carbon electricity they produce.

Earlier this week Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband announced the feed-in tariff (FITs) levels and also published a blueprint for a similar scheme to be introduced in April 2011 to incentivise low carbon heating technologies. The renewable heat incentive (RHI) will be a world first.

From 1 April householders and communities who install low carbon electricity technology, such as solar photovoltaic (pv) panels and wind turbines up to 5 megawatts, will be paid for the electricity they generate, even if they use it themselves. The level of payment depends on the technology and is linked to inflation.

They will get a further payment for any electricity they feed into the grid. These payments will be in addition to benefiting from reduced bills as they reduce the need to buy electricity. The scheme will also apply to installations commissioned since July 2009 when the policy was announced.

More information can be found by clicking here.

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I have to calculate whether we have enough dirty water capacity for 6 months storage. Are there standard figures to calculate liquid output per pig? I can calculate quantities amounting from rainfall on outside concrete and roofs but cannot discover how to estimate what the animals themselves produce. I have a reasonable idea of water consumption but clearly not all that water ends up in the lagoon.

To assist producers calculate their NVZ spreading and storage requirements BPEX has prepared two spreadsheets, one is for those who run continuous flow systems, and one for batch systems as the calculations are slightly different. These can be found by clicking here. The spreadsheets use Defra standard data taken from NVZ Leaflet 3:

The Regulations require you to have sufficient storage for 6 months continuous slurry production; this will include wash water and dirty surface water where they cannot be separated. If dirty water can be kept separate, then it may be possible to have less storage (4 months minimum) than for slurry as the closed periods for spreading will not apply. Dirty water is covered in a Defra Q&A Factsheet 1:

Whilst 6 months slurry storage may be the legal minimum requirement, an individual farms needs may be in excess of this because "closed periods" may overlap with traditional spreading windows. Manure and slurry nitrogen efficiency (NVZ Leaflet 3, Table 8) cropping patterns, soil types, method of spreading etc., all have an influence on the amount of storage needed. 

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Below are the latest BPHS assessment dates

Assessment dates for January to June 2010 in all participating abattoirs have been published and are available on the BPEX website.

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National News:

Cranswick Sales Up

Cranswick’s organic growth — that’s from the underlying business — in the three months to December was up17 percent, with 14 percent growth from Cranswick Country Foods Norfolk, which the company bought in June last year.

If Cranswick Country Foods Norfolk’s business is taken into account, sales of fresh pork jumped 70 percent. Bacon sales were up by 61 percent and sausages, cooked meats and continental products increased by 21 percent, 17 percent and 9 percent respectively.

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Average farm business income is forecast to have increased over 140 percent on United Kingdom specialist pig farms last year, reports Defra.

This reflects higher prices seen during the course of the year for finished pigs, cull sows, weaners and store pigs and the lower prices for some key inputs, particularly feed.

The value of United Kingdom pig production increased 17 percent to £1 billion, the highest value seen since 1997.

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English farmers can now apply for unsecured, interest free loans of between £3,000 and £20,000, to help them upgrade to more energy-efficient equipment.

The loans, provided over one to four years, are designed to pay for themselves through direct energy savings. Once repaid, farmers will benefit from savings on their energy costs, as well as a reduced carbon footprint. It is a part of the Carbon Trust’s ‘Big Business Refit’ scheme. 

The scheme started on 1 February and is available to English farmers and growers on a first come first served basis. The Carbon Trust expects to distribute around £12 million of funding, saving farmers and growers £4 million per year in energy costs.

Click here for more information, eligibility details and online application from the.

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Will all IPPC producers who are struggling to get new permits, or variations to existing permits, or who are locked in discussions on ammonia improvement conditions, please get in touch with NPA, says general manager Barney Kay.

There really will be no point in complaining later about the Environment Agency’s attitude, unless you help furnish NPA with information now. Sorry to be so blunt, but time is running out and this is important.

NPA, NFU and BPEX will be meeting with Environment Agency directors shortly to review key policy areas and look at current producer cases that have run into serious barriers.

Barney said: ‘We want to take your problems to the meeting and see if we can get some of the barriers lifted."

The problem areas for pig producers include the Agency’s inclusion of non-statutory local sites for ammonia modelling and a new Environment Agency am­monia model.

Barney said: "The new ammonia model has greatly increased the area around a farm that is perceived to be impacting on sensitive habitats, and the length of time being taken to process permits."

Producers with IPPC problems are asked to send details to Barney Kay as soon as possible. Tel: 02476 858782 or 07814 448956.

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For many years, the practice of “top dressing” feed medication onto food has provided a valuable technique for

• targeted medication of single pens of pigs automatically fed
• accurate dosing of lactating sows who have highly variable feed intakes

The advantages of the technique include

• cost effective treatment of specific groups of pigs
• rapid introduction of treatment compared to incorporation in feed
• reduced total antibiotic usage
• safer management of residues
• accurate dose provision for sows

Unfortunately, the new Veterinary Medicines Regulation 2009 which came into effect on 1/10/09 states in Schedule 5 Para 8

“It is an offence to promote or label any veterinary medicinal product or anything containing a veterinary medicinal product, as being suitable for top dressing unless the summary of product characteristics specifically permit its use”.

Very few product marketing authorisation contains such an indication.

This effectively bans the technique which means antibiotic use must increase – contrary to good veterinary practice – and the accurate dosing of sows in lactation can only be achieved by injection.

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The search is on for the UK’s greenest butcher as part of this year’s National Butchers’ Week, which takes place between March 15-20.

Now in its third year, National Butchers’ Week will be hunting for the nation’s most environmentally responsible meat retailer for the first time.

Are you Britain’s greenest butcher? Are you doing your part to help the environment? If so, MTJ wants to hear from you to help ensure National Butchers’ Week spreads the message about the butchery trade.

As well as focusing on the environment, the week will also be tapping into education and children’s love of the ever-popular sausage. MTJ has created a five-part lesson plan on sausage making for young children, and is encouraging schools to get in touch with their local butcher to bring the lessons to life.

For more details, click here, or contact MTJ editor Ed Bedington on 01293 846567, or email him on [email protected].

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The Co-op is correcting an "error" which led to "ambient sausage rolls" going on sale after a group which campaigns against gobbledegook complained that the description took the linguistic biscuit.

The Plain English Campaign said it had no idea what an "ambient sausage roll" was and had never seen food labelled in such a "bizarre" fashion.

Co-op officials said the label was an "administrative error".

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Spam Wonderful Spam

An Army chef fed troops in Afghanistan on Spam-based recipes for six weeks after the Taliban shot down their food supplies.

While most chefs have the luxury of variety, Corporal Liam Francis had to improvise and come up with menus centred around the tinned meat.

When the civilian supply helicopter flying to Forward Operating Bases in the Sangin District was brought down, it meant no fresh deliveries could get through.

But the 26-year-old Royal Logistics Corps chef did not despair, and created every dish he could think of using the famous budget food.

Cpl Francis, of Hartcliffe, Bristol, said: "We were on compo (compound rations) for six weeks, and we only had one menu: Spam".

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International News:

Bacon is Sexy!

Maple Leaf Foods put some sizzle in its launch Wednesday of the company’s new re-closable bacon packaging, tying the announcement in with survey results showing 43 percent of people prefer bacon to sex.

"We wanted to probe how deeply rooted Canadians’ passion for bacon is — and the For the Love of Bacon survey sure opened our eyes!" Adam Grogan, vice president of marketing for Maple Leaf, said in a news release.

Beyond the revelations about Canadians and their bacon-to-sex preferences, the survey also showed that Canadians’ No. 1 frustration with typical bacon packaging is that it cannot be re-closed (71 percent) and that it’s too messy (52 percent). The bacon is center cut, and the re-closable tray is 100 percent recyclable.

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European farmers’ organisation Copa-Cogeca has stressed the need to ensure European legislation is based on good scientific evidence and that Europe’s high welfare standards also apply to imports.

Speaking in Brussels, Copa-Cogeca secretary-general Pekka Pesonen said, “All too often debates governing animal welfare become highly emotional and are based on biased information.

“European Union legislation must be based on sound scientific evidence, accompanied by an impact assessment which takes into account the socio-economic costs and effects on industry and trade. Consultation with key stakeholders is crucial.”

Copa-Cogeca believes Europe’s welfare requirements must also be applied to imports from non-European Union countries.

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According to the latest Export Bulletin total EU exports of pork and offal fell by 10% in 2010. The worst affected destinations were the Philippines (-43% to 23,000 t.), Japan (-23% to 172,000 t.), South Korea (-19% to 88,000 tonnes) and Hong Kong (-15% to 364,000 t.). However, total exports remain above 2 m. tonnes at 2.154 m. tonnes a good performance in difficult conditions. Pork exports to China are up 17% to 160,000 t.

To read the full Export Bulletin, click here.

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