Australian Pork Newspaper

Phone: 07 4697 3344 • Fax 07 4697 3532
www.stockyardindustries.com
Vol 23. No. 4 April 2019 Australian Pork Newspaper PO Box 387 Cleveland 4163 Phone (07) 3286 1833 Fax (07) 3821 2637 Email ben@porknews.com.au
APRIL IPP Jess Craig (right) with the dedicated team of Rivalea farming technical officers Casie Braden, Steve Smith, Jake Walker, Erin Ford and Sam Beer, all of whom are looking forward to Jess finishing her PhD.
APRIL Industry Placement Program starts at Rivalea and SunPork
ternational pig prices.
This would have flow-on ef- fects for us in our export busi- nessandpossiblyimproveour competitive position against imports into Australia in ad-
dition.
The other potential scenario
is we get the disease here in Australia, immediately clos- ing down our export busi- ness and building a 10 percent oversupply for the domestic market, plummeting pig pric- es overnight.
Our feral pig population would threaten to be an ongo- ing source of disease for the domestic herd and it would take considerable time, effort and resources to reopen our international business.
This is the disaster scenario we have to avoid at all costs.
So this month, there’s a cou- ple of messages to take away: • Be vigilant to the possibil- ity of animal activist threats in the near-term. Take a look at the farm invasion informa- tion on the APL website in the Members’ A rea for some
hints.
• Ramp up your on-farm
biosecurity measures. If you don’t already have a policy relating to pork products be- ing brought onto your farm (in workers’ lunchboxes for example), implement one now that says there should be none.
The next Delegates’ Forum is to be held in Adelaide on May 9.
Members are welcome to attend at their own cost and I’m sure the subject matter mentioned above will be front and centre on the agenda.
Stockyard Industries 54 King Street,
Clifton QLD 4361
07 4697 3344
www.stockyardindustries.com
AUSTRALASIAN Pork Research Institute Limited has announced Jess Craig, Rivalea, NSW and Sofie Pridgeon, Wasleys Piggery, SunPork Farms, South Aus- tralia, as the first recipients under its Industry Placement Program.
APRIL’s IPP program is similar to that successfully initiated in Co-operative Re- search Centre for High In- tegrity Australian Pork and complements future APRIL student support in education and training.
The APRIL IPP program places graduates with employ-
APRIL IPP Sofie Pridgeon, Wasleys Piggery, SunPork Farms, South Australia.
ers able to give them hands- on experience with specialist mentors, on-farm and in pro- duction.
Of 14 Pork CRC IPPs, half were interned with vertically integrated pork production companies and piggeries, while the others were with veterinary consultancies and nutrition and feed formulation companies.
APRIL CEO and Chief Sci- entist John Pluske said the IPP program created career-en- hancing opportunities for grad- uate and postgraduate students.
“By partnering high-achiev- ing, motivated graduates and postgraduates with industry
APRIL IPP Jess Craig, Rivalea, NSW.
for three years, we’re fast- tracking the professional de- velopment of talented young people, while enhancing pro- ductivity for businesses,” Prof Pluske said.
“After three years, the IPP providers and APRIL expect the IPPs to be more rounded and grounded in their under- standing of the pork industry and how they can best impact it due to their on-the-job men- tored training.
“It’s a win-win situation for the future of a more robust, sustainable pork industry and APRIL is delighted we’ve been able to partner with Ri- valea and SunPork Farms for our two inaugural IPP place- ments,” he said.
Ms Craig, who has a Bach- elor of Animal and Veterinary Bioscience and is studying a Doctor of Philosophy at Mur- doch University, is mentored at Rivalea by Rob Smits, Che- rie Collins, Rebecca Morrison and David Henman.
She will work on two new APRIL funded projects ad- dressing porcine chronic res- piratory disease under field conditions and, with the use of DXA technology, the rela-
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ASF and activism – what’s next?
THE predictions – including those of our Minister for Agriculture and Water Re- sources David Littleproud – about how the Aussie Farms map was intended to be and would be used seem to have come true, with an increased level of farm raids and gen- eral animal rights activism noticed over recent weeks.
While pig farms are in- volved, the raids are across a number of livestock sectors including chicken production and beef feedlots.
The Federal Minister is call- ing for – and a number of states are implementing – re- viewsoftheirtrespasslawsin response.
Some of the punitive actions against those found guilty of trespass-type infringements recently have been far less than satisfactory.
Even the $10,000 fine given to two farm-raiding activists in Western Australia doesn’t seem like an effective deter- rent when activists state they will continue to carry out these raids and their fines are being paid for through ‘click- tivists’ and crowd funding.
We need to continue to call out these ideologues as frauds.
Their complaints about so- called ‘factory farming’ and cruelty just don’t ring true when you realise there are no on-farm conditions of raising livestock they will support through actually eating meat, milk or eggs.
As I mentioned back in Feb- ruary, someone with an opin- ion about farming conditions who actually shops for their meat, milk and eggs with eth- ics and discretion has tenfold credibility.
The response of some farms to the threat (and reality) of these raids is to make our pig farms seem even more inaccessible through stronger boundary fencing and other security measures.
It’s a great pity we have to go to these lengths to conduct our legal businesses, not to mention the expense involved.
Given grain prices at pre- sent, extra expenses are cer-
Point of View
by ANDREW SPENCER CEO
tainly not welcome.
We are putting together the
data for the February Produc- tionSurvey(andthankyouto those who have provided their information).
Against the benchmark of week to week slaughter num- bers last year, it’s clear pro- duction is slowing.
We have reached a peak of over 5.4 million processed pigs in the 2018 calendar year and we expect this number to be closer to 5.3 million by the end of June this year and continuing to contract.
Demand in the market re- mains strong and our opinion would be that tightness of supply should ensure prices have more of a tendency to increase than decrease.
Time will tell.
The profitability problem is no longer oversupply and pig prices, but the price of grain.
All fingers are crossed for a strong and early autumn break for the winter crops across the country to release some pressure on grain sup- ply.
Working against us is the recent declaration of an El Niño alert by the Bureau of Meteorology.
African Swine Fever con- tinues to wreak havoc on pig farms in China and now Viet- nam in addition.
For Australia’s pig farmers, this disease is certainly a two- edged sword.
One scenario is ASF lead- ing to a shortage of pigs in China for their markets, re- sulting in increased imports and supporting stronger in-
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