The Pig Guide - Editorial Articles

BPEX pledges to carry on fight to win extra value for every pig sold

by Mick Sloyan, chief executive of the British Pig Executive.

Feed costs are, and will continue to be, the dominating feature of the British pig industry and the biggest challenge it faces. But it is not something unique to our shores; it’s a world problem and producers across the globe are feeling the effects. And it is not just wheat, soya too has been affected and experts say while prices may come down from their historically high levels it is not possible to give an accurate forecast on the cost of feed grain and soya.

The market has been very volatile, reacting to changing weather, stock levels and demand from biofuels and this volatility will continue. There is, however, action that pig producers can take to help manage some of the effects of these high prices. There are price risk management tools available which will help whether you are buying compounded feed or milling your own. The Home Grown Cereals Authority website has some useful information on this. You can also find valuable information on the BPEX website (www.bpex.org.uk) including the feed cost calculator which can help optimise production and ease some of the effects of high prices. But the most important thing is to get greater value from the market for every pig sold - and that is where BPEX is and will continue, to focus its energies.

The passing of foot and mouth disease will also make a positive contribution as a return to more normal trading with the re-opening of EU trade and, hopefully third countries as well, will bring stability to the domestic market as well as some welcome extra value. Though exports have a part to play it is on the domestic market that the greatest effort has to be made.

BPEX together with the National Pig Association and the entire British industry launched a major campaign to see a fairer return for producers which would help them cope with their crippling feed costs. It started with a report on exactly what had happened to feed costs and the implications this had for pig production costs and profitability. Since then, there have been advertisements in the national and trade press, a guide for food writers explaining the crisis and a survey of consumers which showed very positive results – 78% said they were willing to pay a bit more to help British farmers Celebrity chef Antony Worrall-Thompson has thrown his weight behind the campaign and he has conducted radio interviews with a dozen stations backing the campaign. He is also one of the signatories to a celebrity letter which went out to national newspapers.

BPEX and NPA chairman Stewart Houston maintained a dialogue with the leading supermarkets explaining the problem and seeking their support. As a result, prices began to rise at retail but producer prices did not follow suit. Having made a start, the campaign was taken directly to the public with a tour by the Pig-o-Meter – a giant pig with a digital display showing how much the industry was losing every second. It is vital we get more value into the producer and processor sectors of the industry. If not, the pressure on profitability will be intolerable and the future of the whole industry will be under threat

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Premium growth potential must not be missed

by Rick Sanderson, pork chain business development manager for PIC

It may seem hard to think positively when survival has, for so long, been the name of the game, but we must have a game plan to really make ‘British Pork Worth It’ to our customer. In many developed grocery markets, achieving cost reduction remains a key focus and retailers are embracing supply chain efficiency and sourcing improvements in order to deliver better value for the consumer.

However, there is significant growth at the premium end of the market too, with an increase in retailers and suppliers seeking to add value in this segment. With growth occurring at both ends of the market, those operating in the centre ground may find their market share increasingly threatened. It is the middle of this hourglass where we currently aim a large proportion of British pork, and we need to be striving to make our product fit for purpose. Can we achieve a cost of production low enough to satisfy the value end of the hourglass? Increasing feed prices on top of an existing premium make this proposition sound very difficult. So we must try and develop our premium credentials.

Opportunity for premium
Institute of Grocery Distribution figures from 2006 demonstrate that opportunities created by retailers and their suppliers for premiums were vast. The ‘premium’ market was worth almost £13billion in the UK. This breaks out as follows: Retailers Premium Brands - £5b; Local and Regional - £4b; Premium Branded Goods - £1.9b; Organics - £1.6b; Specialist & Fine Foods - £0.2b.

There are exciting growth prospects in all these sectors too. If we look at the five-year forecast of the market sizes, again IGD predict that these established premium markets may grow a further third to £18.7billion. Retailers Premium Brands - £8.9b (+£3.9b); Local & Regional - £4.8b (+£0.8b); Premium Branded Goods - £2.4b (+£0.5b); Organics £2.4b (+£0.8b); Specialist & Fine Food - £0.2 billion (no change). It is interesting to note that the largest predicted growth is in the supermarkets own premium brands. If we take a look at how dominant the supermarket own labels are within store, it easy to see why they are predicted to carry on driving growth. It cannot be a coincidence that the retailers who have had a difficult time of late have a lower percentage of own label premium brands.

Percentage own labels: Waitrose - 50%; Sainsburys - 49%; Tesco - 48%; Asda - 48%; Morrisons - 43%; Co-Op - 39%; Somerfield - 35%; Kwik Save -15%.

Now let’s take a look at all the buzzwords that retailers are using to attract these premium customers. Sustainable, ethical, welfare friendly, carbon footprints, food miles, fair trade, energy efficient, wholesome, nutritious, healthy, environmentally friendly, waste neutral, locally sourced, non air-freighted, fresh, etc.

Retailers are all keen to establish their ‘green’ credentials, and the premium labels are being used as a ‘halo effect’ around the rest of their offer. Just consider ‘Whole Foods’ in Kensington, a novel concept exploiting premium retailing of fresh and local goods.

‘Food miles’ claims and ‘local food’ opportunities cannot be satisfied by imported produce, so an opportunity is clearly under our noses. Other opportunities are waiting just over the horizon to carve out a sustainable premium for a Quality British Product, one that is led by demand for its premium attributes, and one which, in the long run, will be more sustainable than cost price increases. We need to take these opportunities and develop them to clearly establish that ‘British Pigs Are Worth It'.

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Technical focus on issues of greatest need

Key Activities for 2008-09

The results of any research programme are a waste of time unless they are focused on the immediate needs of producers. Over the next year, the British Pig Executive will be focusing its technical work on four areas:  Health, eating quality, the environment and cost of production.

Health

The arrival of a PCV2 vaccine is an exciting development. The evidence from both Europe and America makes us very hopeful we are going to see improvements especially in a far lower post weaning mortality leading to increased grower / finisher growth
and feed efficiency and greater breeding herd performance
BPEX will be carrying out an investigation in conjunction with pharmaceutical companies to look at best vaccination strategy. An ambitious objective is to fund a national research and demonstration project using PCV2 vaccine and monitoring welfare (mortality and morbidity), Zoonoses (ZAP Salmonella).
There is also a new project from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) seeking to determine the factors causing PMWS and identifying  preventative or therapeutic treatments which, to be successful, will require considerable inputs from BPEX in the early stages, with participation from 300 producers.
Respiratory disease can be a major problem for the pig industry and we will be exploring the possibilities of a nationwide disease eradication strategy focused on respiratory diseases and PRRS specifically. New highly pathogenic strains of
PRRS are getting closer to the UK and the current vaccines have somewhat variable effectiveness.
A review of surveillance has been commissioned looking at what is needed for effective surveillance in England and the role of the BPHS, NADIS, ZAP, MHS and VLA. During the first half of the year, we will be looking to work with schemes to develop, for example, a regular joint health report. For optimum efficiency we will be exploring a common database and greater epidemiological analysis.
BPHS abattoir days have increased and are now on consecutive weeks in several abattoirs to add value to the scheme for batch producers – taking samples from pigs in consecutive weeks means the data becomes far more representative of the batch as a whole and therefore useful to vet and manager for taking corrective actions.
The BPHS reports identified Pleurisy as a major cost to the industry at both producer level and at abattoir. A very practical project entitled ‘Pleurisy in pigs: associated risk factors and impact on health, welfare and performance’, will start in the New Year.
Moving on to herd health planning, two projects need to be rolled out further to ensure steady and continued improvement.
The two - Farm Health Planning and Pig Herd Health Plans - need to become a routine part of pig unit management. The means for this to occur will come from the Defra-sponsored ‘Risk Factors for Pig Disease’ project which is analysing the huge amount of information (physical performance, ZAP, BPHS etc) and risk factors (e.g. location, proximity of other units and unit facilities) to detect key risks and thereby report
on strategies to overcome and mitigate those risks. 
Salmonella control remains a vital part of the BPEX health programme. During early 2008 EFSA and the FSA will be reporting on several European wide studies that have been measuring levels of Salmonella across the EU. This might result in new initiatives member state by member state to further reduce the risk Therefore BPEX will be looking to work increasingly closely with the processing sector to take this forward.
Outputs from intervention studies on farm will see a new series of ZAP Salmonella control leaflets produced appropriate to all situations. Everything so far has been firmly aimed at improving herd health and that in itself should result in lower cost of production.
But, healthier pigs need fewer antimicrobials and there is a saving
to be made here. At present, the UK uses a high level of antimicrobials in its health control strategy. The advent of PCV2 vaccine is likely to lead to better control of other diseases, for example PRRS, and this in turn, should lead to a reduced need for anti-microbials. We will be looking to work with veterinary professionals to measure and monitor the need for and use of antimicrobials as health improves.

Eating Quality

A plan covering both the short and medium term has been drawn up aimed at improving the eating quality of pork.
Pre-farm gate the focus has been on nutrition, breeds and management as means for enhancing meat quality through better pH and higher IMF levels resulting in improved taste, tenderness and succulence.
Post farm gate elements include abattoir audits to identify problem areas, pH meter testing, chilling regimes and carcass maturation to improve the consistency within each range of pork products.
We will be continuing our work with individual processors to overcome the view that pork is boring, and not knowing how to cook it. It needs to be demonstrated that pork is tasty, succulent and versatile. This message is starting to be taken on board in foodservice but we now need to push it by adding to the consumer information.

Environment
The primary objective here is the reduction of the environmental carbon and nitrogen footprint per kg of pig meat produced which addresses the Government priority for lower carbon footprint and lower environment impact overall while adding to production efficiency – it really is a win-win situation for the Government and the producer.
This starts with the Pig Environment Partnership with all stakeholders around the same table – producers, BPEX, NPA, Defra, EA and NFU. BPEX will be ensuring additional resources are made available for the development of the practical advice producers need. Funding will be made available for the demonstration of environmental best practice and we will continue to fund work to understand Life Cycle Analysis and carbon footprint.
Life Cycle Analysis is the calculation of where every last particle of Carbon that goes into a process comes from - with pig production it includes, for example, the carbon in the tyres of the tractor that cultivated the wheat and the fuel of the boat that transported the maize etc etc. With this understanding we can see where English production methods differ and where England differs from competitors and look to delivering the efficiencies demanded by today’s consumer.
Collaboration on new projects in nutrient management and bio-energy production will continue. Funding is available from Regional Development Agencies for nutrient management and we are working with all relevant RDA’s to access this.

Cost of Production

Helping reduce the cost of production is the key objective of the whole Knowledge Transfer team and all of the projects they are working on are undertaken with this in mind. However, there is other work which also touches on costing. The new
demonstration grants launched last Autumn will see significant new funding next year with £200,000 available to the right producer driven ideas.
The best practice workshops have been both popular and very useful. These will be delivered regionally, ensuring we work with key producer groups and other deliverers of similar sessions for co-ordinated activity and co-operation to avoid duplication.
The Action for Productivity series has proved popular with a dozen titles so far, all on very practical topics from coping with heat stress to improving the killing-out percentage and creep feeding. A whole rake of new titles will appear over the next year. Keep an eye on the BPEX website (www.bpex.org.uk) during the year for events, ideas and practical solutions to drive your business forward.

 

To contact the Knowledge Transfer
Team call 01908 844734 or visit: their website

 

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Making the right choices for the pig’s environment

Ensuring that the pig is given the very best opportunity within the environment imposed on it demands a multi-disciplinary approach. Many parties are involved ranging from building manufacturers, building assemblers, equipment manufacturers and installation electricians as well as pig farmers and those who actually manage pig buildings.
Despite research efforts providing the pig industry with crucial fundamental information, inadequate pig environments are both commonplace and costly. Pig farmers often have a range of enterprises and associated responsibilities and so demand sophistication and simplicity at the same time. How these systems are actually managed is the key issue.

Troubleshooting visits to problem pig environments regularly indicate shortcomings in the basics. Sometimes, there has been a breakdown in the communication circle resulting in the person actually managing the pigs not being adequately briefed on the limitations of the control system. The uniqueness and harshness of the pig environment must be acknowledged and the fact that within it the physical demands upon control equipment necessitate that it must be robust, of good quality and be installed by professionals. Non-specialised control equipment widely used in general industrial situations is often short-lived when introduced to the challenging environment of the pig farm.

Rather than be regarded as an expensive addition to a substantial but separate outlay of capital, environment control apparatus must be regarded as a worthwhile investment in production plant that will yield a measurable payback. Staff must be trained to regard such installations as an essential part of their working tools to be used to help nurture the pigs in their care and so generate profit. The labour force must be trained to check themselves by monitoring the pig environment regularly and accept that excellence is more likely to be achieved if there is independent checking of the results of their actions. Monitoring can take on many forms.  Even when a pig building has the benefit of state-of-the-art control systems, the pig keeper must always assume overall ownership of the environment in which the pigs are housed. 

Opting out and allowing technology to take care of all key decision-making is not acceptable for those entrusted to work in modern, industrialised pig keeping systems.

There is a chasm between merely meeting the welfare needs of pigs and maximising efficiency of production.  Now the ability of the stock keeper to recognise abnormal pig behaviour and assume a more pro-active approach is being enhanced by the sensible use of modern technology. 

Embrace the technology

Quality assurance schemes demand that pig buildings should have maximum/minimum thermometers available to help stock keepers meet their objectives. Those routinely committed to taking daily temperature readings will, at least, have some understanding about the degree of temperature fluctuation and use this as a basis for decision-making with respect to environment amelioration.
However, room temperature is only one element of pig environment. Technology has moved on and modern pig keepers must embrace this technology and use it to supplement their stock-keeping skills. These issues have been addressed in a forthcoming book entitled ‘Improving Pig Environment’. It has been written for perfectionists and those with an enquiring mindset. The authorship has been shared by Norfolk pig consultant Paul Smith and the directors of Farmex, the Reading based company who have pioneered ‘real-time’ environment monitoring in the UK. Together they hope to motivate pig people who typically ask:
*Do I understand the biological needs of the pig?
*Does the environment I have provided meet those basic needs?
*How am I doing now?
*How does this compare with previous achievements?
*Can I do any better?
*How should I tackle the challenge of making changes that will bring about improvements?

A boost for profits

“Improving Pig Environment” will draw on the experience of ‘early adopters’ who have made much use of technology as a means of making pigs feel more comfortable and boosting the profits of those who keep pigs. It helps define best practice and encourages its uptake for the benefit of pigs, pig keepers, processors, retailers and consumers.
The book is due to be published by Nottingham University Press in summer 2008 and demonstrates what able stock people already know. The most productive pigs are those attentively nurtured within a health and welfare conscious regime.