Page 18 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Figure 1: Pigs weaned/litter for selected countries between 2015 and 2017.
THE global benchmark- ing results for 2017 were released earlier in 2018 than usual but Canada was not a participant in 2017.
The results for selected countries are shown in Table 1.
Australian progress results – reproduction continues to improve
Total born (average 13.3) increased by 0.5 and born alive (average 12) by 0.4 over the past three years.
Weaned per litter (aver- age 10.6) increased by 0.4 over three years.
Pigs weaned/sow/year (average 24.4) increased by 0.8 over the past three years.
Fifty-three percent of participants weaning more than 24/sow/year and 73 percent more than 23.5.
Wean to finish survival increased from 95.4 to 96.5 percent, although
medication/veterinary costs have likely in- creased each of the last three years and currently averages around 8.5 per- cent of COP.
Globally, our COP con- tinues to be disadvantaged by high grain and feed costs and our relatively light carcass weight and volume per sow, though the latter increased by 100kg in the past year.
This could represent an average reduction in COP of 7 cents/kg or $5.25 per pig.
The bottom line is Aus- tralian producers are making good progress and becoming increas- ingly more efficient.
The relatively light car- cass weight is market driven and is having a bigger effect on COP than feed cost.
Nevertheless, this is what the market and con- sumers want in fresh pork and it’s difficult to beat Australian pork in terms of its welfare, eating quality, product innova- tion, carbon footprint and health status.
We need to remember there is a cost involved.
With feed currently av- eraging $440/tonne, for a producer selling 24 pigs per sow/year, a 1kg change in carcass weight alters COP by 1.7 cents/kg.
Progress in performance indicators seems slow but number weaned/sow/ year has increased by 2.6 between 2009-2010 and 2017-2018.
Pretty good I think and all members of the bench- marking group are mak- ing progress.
Born alive over the same time has increased from 10.8 to 12 and weaned per litter from 9.4 to 10.6.
Carcass weight has de- clined from 78.3 to 76.4kg but because of the im- provements in reproduc- tion and survival, carcass weight sold/sow/year increased from 1617 to 1784kg (167kg increase).
A cost breakdown for four countries is shown in Table 2.
This highlights why the US is a low-cost producer compared to most others. Putting progress in context
We hear other countries are making great or better progress than us and the US is continually used as an example.
I can tell you litter size has increased a lot in the past 10 years but the most recent Pig Champ records (Table 3) tell the real story.
You will see progress has been slow over time but theyhavereachedgoodlev- els over the journey.
It looks like they started slightly ahead of us and have maintained some of the advantage.
The relatively poor far- rowing rate for US herds in the benchmarking group (324 herds) prob- ably reflects the fact that average weaning age was 20.7 days.
Progress in born alive and number weaned for four countries over the past three years are shown in Figures 1 and 2. Bottom line
Pork production in Aus- tralia has changed dra- matically over the past 10 years.
Welfare is top of mind and the transition from stall to group housing of sows over the past seven to eight years differenti- ates Australia from most, if not all, other pork pro- ducing countries.
Few others have made the same progress Aus- tralia has in improving eating quality and product development.
The former has been led by Pork CRC and Aus- tralian Pork Limited re- searchers who took meat science from the labora- tory to the supply chains and provided all involved with strategies to enhance eating quality.
The research has led to the development of an eat- ing quality model that will help lead the way to even further improvements in the quality of Australian pork.
Product development, I think, has been tremen- dous over the past five to six years and all led by businesses.
They have provided consumers with greater choice, convenience and have added value to what might have once been regarded as lower-value cuts.
Australia’s top produc- ers are very good.
They have adopted bio- gas capture to reduce their carbon footprint and are getting serious about re- ducing antibiotic use.
They are using the re-
sources and technologies available to make good/ great progress in the ef- ficacy and providence with which pork is pro- duced–ifwecangeta breakthrough in the areas of feed costs and/or feed utilisation then we may not produce at the low- est cost globally but will go close to producing the best value pork globally.
The threats of introduc- tion of a disease such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome and African swine fever and the importation of fresh pork means biosecurity remains a top priority.
Otherwise, the industry looks to have a good fu- ture.
Supply and demand seem to be in better bal- ance than for the past two years and if reproductive efficiency continues to improve at the rate it has over the past three to five years, margins should be good.
I think we will continue to see the industry evolve towards larger, more ef- ficient farms producing pork that wholesalers, retailers and consumers can’t get anywhere else. APL Benchmarking Program update
The Pork CRC Bench- marking Program has now been fully taken over by APL and is being man- aged by Ashley Norval.
With the new year be- ginning, there is now op- portunity for new mem- bers to join the bench- marking group, and all production types and farm sizes are welcome to par- ticipate.
Based off the discus- sions at the benchmarking meeting held in November 2018, data will be submit- ted quarterly rather than monthly as originally pro- posed.
All herd-recording sys- tems are able to be used.
The annual meeting time has also been changed – the next meeting is sched- uled to be held in August in Melbourne.
If you’d like to obtain the list of the key per- formance indicators we will be collecting and/or discuss your involvement further, please contact Ashley Norval at ashley. norval@australianpork. com.au or 0437 177 527.
Roger Campbell
Figure 2: Pigs weaned per sow/year for selected countries 2015-2017.
Table 1: Financial and technical KPIs for selected countries in 2017. *All financials are in Australian dollars.
KPIs for selected countries 2017 – Australia is making good progress with feed cost remaining a challenge
Country /KPI
Australia
US
Den
NL
Brazil
GB
FINANCIALS
COP ($AU/kg Cwt)*
1.49
2.04
2.35
1.59
2.35
Feed ($AU/tonne)
247
331
380
289
358
HFC
4.00
3.50
3.42
3.55
4.18
Feed ($AU/kg Cwt)
0.99
1.16
1.30
1.04
1.50
Other costs (AU/kg)
0.51
0.88
1.05
0.55
0.85
PHYSICAL
Pigs weaned/sow/y
24.4
25.8
33.3
30.3
27.4
25.8
Pigs sold/sow/y
23.5
24.2
31.3
28.8
27.4
24.1
Post weaning mortality (%)
3.5
9.9
6.2
4.9
4.4
6.6
Carcass weight (kg)
76.4
94.7
85.8
94.1
89.3
83.0
Carcass sold/sow/y (kg)
1795
2287
2683
2708
2346
1998
Country /Cost
USA
Denmark
GB
NL
Feed
0.99
1.20
1.50
1.29
Other variable costs
0.19
0.33
0.38
0.52
Labour
0.12
0.21
0.23
0.21
Interest and depreciation
0.17
0.52
0.49
0.33
Table 2: 2017 cost breakdown for four countries ($A/kg carcass weight).
Table 3: Pig Champ US reproduction averages for the years 2010-2017 (340 farms).
Year
Total Born
Born Alive
Weaned
Weaned/ sow/y
Farrowing rate (%)
2010
12.82
11.51
10.18
23.3
82.5
2011
13.19
11.82
10.49
24.1
83.7
2012
13.22
11.78
10.52
24.2
83.0
2013
13.36
12.19
10.78
24.88
84.9
2014
13.49
12.29
10.81
24.38
84.3
2015
13.64
12.39
10.92
24.91
84.5
2016
13.95
12.58
11.03
24.12
82.5
2017
14.17
12.72
11.16
24.99
82.6
Page 18 – Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2019
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