APN March 2017

Phone: 07 4697 3344 • Fax 07 4697 3532
www.stockyardindustries.com
Vol 21. No. 4 April 2017 Australian Pork Newspaper PO Box 387 Cleveland 4163 Phone (07) 3286 1833 Fax (07) 3821 2637 Email ben@porknews.com.au
These year 11 students from Catholic Agricultural College Bindoon enjoyed the WA Pig Day Out 2017.They were pictured with, at left, college staff Stacey Carter and Brett Nelson and at right, WAPPA representatives Graeme Dent and Jan Cooper.
SINCE my March arti- cle, we’ve received the latest statistics avail- able on pig production and trade from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
I mentioned last month that Australian Pork Limited was acute- ly aware of the pig pric- ing issues in the market, and it has become even more acute since then.
The latest ABS statis- tics show that in Janu- ary 2017, compared to the previous January, processed pig numbers were up by close to 11 percent and in terms of pork volumes, up by 14 percent.
In terms of year on year pigs processed numbers, growth was 3.6 percent and in pork volumes 4.6 percent, year on year.
I’ve been involved in the pork industry for approaching 12 years, and in this time I can’t remember a level of growth against the pre- vious year as high as this.
Further investigation of production numbers and volumes reported over the past more than a decade confirm that
Point of View
by ANDREW SPENCER CEO
this is an unprecedented growth level in recent history.
The graph of pro-
The definitive answer will only come with time: waiting on statis- tics for coming months.
I also mentioned last month that we can’t turn demand on and off like a tap, but we can bring forward our de- mand-creating activities to ensure they have an impact as soon as pos- sible and this is what the APL Board has recently approved.
In this financial year, 2016/17, the Board has approved about an ad- ditional $1 million in advertising expenditure to commence later this month.
It is being funded out of a combination of bringing next year’s ex-
penditure forward and from APL reserves.
You’ll find further de- tails on the advertise- ments being run and as- sociated promotions in the weekly APL com- muniqué.
Recently we saw some amazing visuals through the news of the impacts of cyclone Deb- bie in Queensland and northern NSW.
We’ve been in touch with the local depart- ments of Agriculture/ Primary Industries, the state farming organisa- tions and some of the local APL delegates.
Fortunately in most cases, damage appears to be limited but we’re still gathering informa- tion.
There’s a feeling of some helplessness in providing support from here in Canberra, but any producers who would like to discuss their own ideas on how we might be able to do this would be wel- come.
Affected members are also encouraged to con- tact their local delegates (contact details can be found on the APL por- tal).
550
500
450
350
300
250
200
Free ranging WA Pig Day Out
cessed month ing 12 below.
pig numbers by and for a roll- months is shown
artificial insemination by Dr Vanessa Morris of Por- tec Veterinary Services, Portec principal Dr Kim Nairn built on his 2016 talk on biosecurity by running through a list of emerging on-farm health issues.
He warned of the threat
☛ continued P8 Ben Hawkes receives Bridget
Dunn Memorial Award
FREE ranging discus- sions on everything from pig reproduction to pig health management, pig welfare, pig transporting, pork prices, pork mar- keting and global com- petitiveness highlighted a lively 2017 WA Pig Day Out.
people at Technology Park, Bentley, it was host- ed by the West Austral- ian Pork Producers’ As- sociation and sponsored by Pork CRC, Australian Pork Limited, MSD Ani- mal Health, Elanco and Zoetis.
So it
the supply of pigs to the market is a key factor influencing prices.
As mentioned last month, we see no indi- cators pointing towards any weakening in de- mand at an overall level.
The question is whether the January numbers are a one-off big production spurt or the commencement of a consistent and higher level of growth for our industry.
Attended by about 100
After a revealing pres- entation on post-cervical
Bridget Dunn Memorial Award winner Ben Hawkes and Pat Mitchell of Australian Pork Limited at the Victorian Pig Fair. Stay tuned for more Victorian Pig Fair cover- age in the May edition of APN.
Monthly total
MAT total
Turmoil in markets and weather
5200 5000 4800 4600 4400 4200 4000
Jan-12 Mar-12 May-12
Jul-12 Sep-12 Nov-12 Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13
Jul-13 Sep-13 Nov-13 Jan-14 Mar-14 May-14
Jul-14 Sep-14 Nov-14 Jan-15 Mar-15 May-15
Jul-15 Sep-15 Nov-15 Jan-16 Mar-16 May-16
Jul-16 Sep-16 Nov-16 Jan-17
MAT slaughter (000s)
Monthly slaughter (000s)
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07 4697 3344
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would seem that
Monthly and MAT pig slaughter numbers
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