Page 6 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Australian Pork Limited going feral
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I WAS bemused to learn, via a newspaper article and a February 21 media statement from Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud, that Australian Pork Limit- ed’s Research and Inno- vation General Manager Heather Channon, has been appointed Austral- ia’s first National Feral Pig Management Coor- dinator.
In November 2019, the Federal Government an- nounced it had funded APL to the tune of $1.4 million over three and a half years to support a co-ordinator to tackle the feral pig problem.
While not for a mo- ment suggesting Heather will therefore directly pocket an annual sal- ary of $400,000, my be- musement arose because APL’s position descrip- tion (australianpork. com.au/careers) for the feral pig job stated the successful person would report to none other than APL’s Research and In- novation GM.
Now Heather has land- ed the feral pig gig, she’ll be reporting to herself.
Rather unusual, per- haps even odd, and really the ultimate in 360-de- gree reporting, assuming it remains the case.
While not questioning Heather’s ability to de- liver – as I’ve worked with her and respect her capacity as a researcher and meat scientist, par- ticularly in the area of pork eating quality – one
does wonder how APL will continue to handle its research and innova- tion portfolio.
With a big national pork R&D hole left after the June 30, 2019 closure of the very successful, outcome-focused Pork CRC, and its ‘successor’ Australasian Pork Re- search Institute Limited seemingly spinning its wheels as it comes to terms with how best to prioritise research areas and then how to manage them, pork producers across the country are, not surprisingly, express- ing disquiet.
Their concerns seem to focus on a perception that their views, when expressed directly to senior APL executives, are not being listened to, let alone responded to or taken on board.
Additional concerns include the lack of finan- cial and policy account- ability and the need to be supplied with more up- to-date industry figures, especially for trends so better commercial deci-
sions can be made. Producers also desire
more outcome-driven re- search.
Whether this outpour- ing of agitation reflects burdensome, unworkable workloads for those at the top of the APL execu- tive tree, or, more alarm- ingly, that the wrong people are perched at the top of that tree, remains to be seen.
As I flagged in my January APN column: “How workloads and policy priorities will be managed will emerge over time.”
Meanwhile, Dr Chan- non has a big job ahead of her, hopefully with an appropriate level of personnel,infrastructure and resources back-up.
With an estimated 24 million feral pigs in Australia, costing the national agricultural sec- tor about $14.5 million a year, it is a ‘pig of a job’ for sure.
A roundtable in Can- berra, scheduled for late- March, will apparently bring together industry,
governments, research- ers and other stakehold- ers to deliver a national approach to feral pig management.
With Minister Little- proud describing Heath- er’s role as co-ordinating reliable methods and working collaboratively on the ground with land- holders, the states and territories to manage feral pig numbers, I’m thinking she’ll need to be all around the round- table.
With the obvious link between feral pig control and the impending threat of African swine fever, I imagine the very capa- ble Lechelle van Breda, APL’s ASF co-ordinator and manager of produc- tion stewardship, will be working alongside Heather, assuming, that is, Lechelle sticks with her role for the next three and a half years.
Lechelle completed her PhD (‘A comprehensive risk factor analysis of E. coli disease in the pig- gery environment’) three years ago, with support from Pork CRC, at the University of Sydney.
With the seemingly high rate of staff churn at APL in recent times, nothing would surprise.
Trotters crossed, how- ever, that things on the personnel front settle during this tumultu- ous time when the pork industry is crying out for stability like never before.
Cant
Comment
by BRENDON CANT
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Page 6 – Australian Pork Newspaper, March 2020
www.porknews.com.au
Lechelle van Breda at APSA 2015.
Heather Channon at PPPE 2014.