Page 6 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Immunocastration benefits
Pork Integrity
AusScan Early Harvest Report
AUSSCAN Online will be producing a monthly Early Harvest Report from November to April for the 2021/22 harvest.
This year the report will include statistical data for Moisture (%), Protein (%), Broiler AME (MJ/kg), Broiler AME Index, Pig Faecal DE (MJ/kg) and Pig Ileal DE (MJ/kg).
Australia, including natural and artificially weather-damaged grains.
South Australia.
This is likely to result
The report contains data for scans completed within the month of No- vember and does not in- clude any new season’s grain.
Furthermore, pro- gressive upgrades were made to the broiler ap- parent metabolisable energy calibrations through the Pork CRC administered AusScan project, which also in- cluded the weather-dam- aged grains.
in quality downgrades and some damage crops especially in northern NSW.
It will therefore serve as a good baseline com- parison as mills transi- tion from stored grain to the new season’s harvest, which will be coming through in the December scans.
These additional ex- periments improved the robustness of the Aus- Scan Online calibrations and will aid in differ- entiating the quality of cereal grains for the cur- rent 2021-22 harvest.
This is a result of a La Niña event being estab- lished in the tropical Pa- cific during November, increasing the chance of above average rainfall across much of northern and eastern Australia during summer.
This report will be sent out in January 2022.
The forecast for the new season’ s grain is likely to reach a new national record of 58.4 million tonnes and is mainly due to record high production in Western Australia and second highest on re- cord for NSW.
AusScan Online cali- brations include samples of weather damaged grain.
The original premium grain for livestock pro- duction calibrations con- tained a little over 100 grain samples.
Below are comments from the ABARES Australian Crop Report December 2021 edition – awe.gov.au/ abares/research-topics/ agricultural-outlook/ australian-crop-report/ overview – that briefly summarises the state of this season’s harvest.
Production in Victoria and South Australia is expected to be well above average.
It was understood at this stage the energy cal- ibrations had relatively few weather-damaged and pinched grains or triticale samples.
Wheat is expected to yield 34.4 million tonnes, and canola and barley 5.7 and 13.3 mil- lion tonnes respectively.
Subsequent pig digest- ible energy experiments completed at the Univer- sity of Melbourne and supported by the Pork CRC – Project 4B-117 – contained a wide range of cereal grains from
Due to a series of heavy rainfall events during November, there is a delay in the harvest of winter crops across NSW, Queens- land, Victoria and
The AusScan Online Early Harvest Reports will be published in this publication over the next few months to cover the 2021-22harvest.
BOAR taint is one of the main reasons consumers may have product failure rates.
their way through the value chain, most of the costs and the benefits end up with consumers – pig producers receive 12 percent of total benefits and costs, value chain participants receive 9 percent of total benefits and costs, consumers receive 79 percent benefits and costs
Immunocastration is one of the tools producers can use to deal with off-odour and off-flavour issues in pork.
However, while approxi- mately 60 percent of the Australian herd utilises IC in their production, the re- maining portion may not use this technology due to the perception that the costs outweigh the benefits.
• Importantly, net eco- nomic surplus to the in- dustry is highly likely to be increased.
With this in mind, Aus- tralian Pork Limited has run a comprehensive benefit cost analysis, completed in October 2021.
riences with boar-tainted pork.
If the adoption of IC takes time–fiveyears–orifit is never fully adopted, de- pending upon on the size of demand gained or retained, it could still be a good in- vestment.
This research concluded an increased use of IC in Australia’s pig industry re- duces the prevalence and risk of boar taint, and poor preparation and eating ex- periences associated with boar taint.
The research considered the industry-wide benefits and costs for producers and consumers of IC of pigs. Costs associated with IC accounted for in the study
This analysis is unable to determine the exact loss or gain in demand that may occur due to less preva- lence of boar-tainted pork resulting from increased use of IC.
The results of the benefit cost analysis were tested using an equilibrium dis- placement model of the Australian pig industry:
IC adoption has a very high likelihood of deliv- ering a net benefit to in- dustry participants and the total benefits will exceed the costs of implementation, resulting in both consumers and producers being ben- efitted.
• The costs of the vaccine • Additional labour costs • Added costs in pro-
confirmed
cessing caused by potential abscess formation at the vaccine site – the costs as- sociated with abscesses in- clude product downgrades or stopping the slaughter line for cleaning.
For different scenarios, a range of benefit cost ratios have been calculated.
For further information on this report or for the full copy of final report, contact Dr Vaibhav Gole on 0436 934 763 or email vaibhav. gole@australianpork.com. au
by DR VAIBHAV GOLE
This study has evaluated the net benefit under dif- ferent scenarios of adoption, cost of the technology and changes in demand. Results
• The EDM
that only small changes in demand are required to offset the industry-wide costs of an expansion in the use of immunocastration
Benefits associated with IC accounted for in the study
These scenarios included two different costs of im- plementing IC at producer level ($/kg IC cost) and the percentage of annual total pork demand that has to be either retained or increased.
• The EDM suggests once the effects of added costs and benefits of widespread use of IC have worked
• A reduction in con- sumers having poor eating experiences of fresh pork
Results suggested that the sooner IC is fully adopted, the better the investment in IC for the Australian pork industry.
•Potential benefits of avoiding customer loss through reducing the oc- currence – and risk of oc- currence – of having an unsatisfactory experience preparing and eating pork
In the best case, only 0.5 percent of pork con- sumption is required to be retained or gained due to lower incidence of bad smell or taste.
• Potential increasing de- mand above what it would be with the continuation of poor experiences and the known risk of poor expe-
This would be as a result of the elimination of boar taint in 100 percent of the national herd.
An increased use of immunocastration in Australia’s pig industry reduces the prevalence and risk of boar taint, and poor preparation and eating experiences associated with boar taint. Photo: Matka Wariatka
20
Page 6 – Australian Pork Newspaper, January 2022
www.porknews.com.au