Page 8 - APN March 2017

After addressing the Pig Day Out, Crawford Taylor of Rabobank and WAPPA President Dawson Bradford of Cuballing caught up with Ashley Norval of APL and Bruce Mullan of DAFWA.
Catching up at the Pig Day Out were Department of Agriculture and Water Resources Meat Exports Branch area technical manager and veterinarian Ran Tal, Narrogin-based DAFWA senior compliance officer Alex Stewart and Cuballing producers Graeme Dent and Angie O’Hara.
It was lunch time after all, at WA Pig Day Out 2017, so Pork CRC CEO Roger Campbell ‘sandwiched’ himself between Pork CRC PhD candidate Diana Turpin of Murdoch University and former Pork CRC honours student Ingunn Stensland, who started as an R&D officer with Linley Valley Pork on March 1.
Hungry but happy at the conclusion of the Pig Day Out were Narrogin pork producer Mark Conley and Sue Skirrow, Albany-based senior veterinary officer with DAFWA Livestock Biosecurity.
Pork CRC CEO Roger Campbell updated attendees on Pork CRC’s high-priority R&D projects and over- viewed the global pig landscape.
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posed by unwanted water- birds, especially ducks, when their faeces could contaminate pig feed and subsequently infect pigs with salmonella.
The risk was magnified in the increasingly popu- lar free range and ecoshel- ter systems, which offered unwanted intruders rela- tively easy access to pig feed and pigs.
Avian influenza and swine dysentery were other threats, along with mycotoxins from grain and straw harvested in wet conditions.
Having just returned from animal science meetings in Des Moines, US, Pork CRC CEO Dr Roger Campbell revealed that the six-million-sow US industry was grow- ing quite rapidly in terms of production and pack- ing plants, with domestic demand increasing slower than population growth, which meant additional production had to be ex- ported.
Currently about a quar- ter of production is ex- ported.
“Trends apparent during my visit were continual improvement in reproduc- tion, more judicious use of antibiotics, largely be- ing driven by veterinar- ians and piggery disease loads remaining high for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome and swine influenza virus and, to a lesser extent, porcine epidemic diarrhoea vi- rus,” Dr Campbell said.
Turning his attention to Australia, Dr Camp-
bell said the position for Australia’s pork producers was changing and chal- lenging, with their future dependent on how much further price slipped and how well they managed cost of production.
Australian Pork Limited general manager Policy Deb Kerr updated attend- ees on a range of industry statistics, including: na- tional slaughterings up 11 percent in January 2017 on January 2016, resulting in national meat production rising by 14 percent on January 2016; and breed-
ing herd and fresh pork per capita consumption continuing to increase.
She also announced that an additional $964,000 had been committed na- tionally to market the versatility of pork, with WA’s share commencing with a roast promotion in April and the WA cam- paign concluding at the end of June.
WAPPA executive com- mittee member Dean Romaniello, a senior man- ager with Linley Valley Pork, generated a spirited debate when he intro-
duced and addressed his agenda topic ‘fit to load and abattoir protocols’.
A few producers vigor- ously debated perceived issues surrounding the new meat notice issued by the Australian Gov- ernment’s Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.
Covering animal welfare concerns at export reg- istered pork slaughtering establishments, it was ef- fectively unveiled at the Pig Day Out by the De-
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Page 8 – Australian Pork Newspaper, April 2017
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Paying plenty of attention at the Pig Day Out were these year 11 students from Catholic Agricultural College Bindoon.
Something had amused Richard Evison and Taya Clarke, both of Westpork, and Wannamal producer Brendan Howard during a session at the Pig Day Out.