Page 2 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Full steam ahead for Australian Pork Industry Leadership Program
Pig Industry Calendar of Events
2019
JUN 12-13 – Australian Biosecurity Symposium, Gold Coast, QLD www. biosym.com.au
JUN 18 – Victorian Pig Fair, Bendigo Harness Racing Facility, VIC E: vicpigfair@gmail.com
JUN 23-26 – International Symposium on Emerging and Remerging Pig Diseases, Santiago, Chile www. emerging2019.com/en
AUG 11 - 14 – The International Conference on Boar Semen Preservation, Hunter Valley, NSW www.boarsemen2019.com
AUG 25 - 28 – Asian Pig Veterinary Society Congress, Buscan, South Korea www.apvs2019.com/invit.html
AUG 26- 29 – SafePork Conference, Berlin, Germany www.safepork- conference.com
SEP 21- OCT 1 – Royal Melbourne Show, Melbourne Showgrounds VIC royalshow.com.au
OCT 19 - 21 – Leman China Swine Conference, Zhengzhou, China www. vetmed.umn.edu/news-events/leman- china-swine-conference
NOV 13 - 15 –2019 Pig Welfare Symposium, Minneapolis, US www.pork. org/events/pig-welfare-symposium
NOV 17 - 20 – Australasian Pig Science Association Conference, Adelaide, SA www.apsa.asn.au
How to supply event details: Send all details to Australian Pork Newspaper, PO Box 387, Cleveland, Qld 4163, call 07 3286 1833 fax: 07 3821 2637, email: ben@porknews.com.au
porknews.com.au
07 3286 1833
THE six participants of Course 2 of the Austral- ian Pork Industry Lead- ership Program, selected from a very strong field of applicants, were at the time of printing getting prepared for their first workshop that begins on May 7 in Canberra.
As per last year, the first workshop is an outdoor experiential challenge aimed at developing the participants’ leadership skills as well as their per- sonal understanding of managing themselves and a team when facing chal- lenging situations.
After the completion of the first workshop, the participants will meet again in Denmark in Oc- tober, where they will tour various pig production sites, training centres, pro- cessing plants and attend the 2019 Svine Kongres- sen (Danish PPPE).
The final workshop will be held in January 2020 and will include work- shops on presentation skills and having difficult conversations.
I am very pleased to an- nounce the participants for Course 2 – congratula- tions to you all!
Steve Smith: Technical Manager, Research and Innovation Farms, Ri- valea Australia
Steve has 10 years of diverse experience work- ing in commercial pig production (indoor and free-range systems) in leadership roles, includ- ing leading teams through the innovation and imple- mentation of systems to improve production effi- ciency, production man- agement and welfare.
Some of his career achievements include working with the Rivalea R&I team to ensure ex- periments are conducted correctly, implementing electronic sow feeders and Nedap feeding systems to work in their enterprise, developing novel group weaning system for sows, which included enrich- ment, implementing post- cervical AI on farm and managing progeny sorting systems in commercial units, achieving customer carcass compliance. Dearne Cowling: Tooleen Breeder Unit Site Manager, Pigco
Dearne has 25 years’ ex- perience within the Aus- tralian pork industry and
started as a 19-year-old animal attendant at Bears Lagoon Piggery, which was then a farrow-to-fin- ish operation.
Since that time, she has worked in a number of operations ranging from small family owned busi- nesses to large corporate farms.
Dearne currently works for Pigco and has been with them for 17 years.
She is the site manager for a 2200-breeder farm managing 10 staff with the day-to-day operation of the farm.
As part of her role, Dearne is quality assur- ance manager for the com- pany, managing animal welfare on all sites, in- ternal audits and external APIQP audits with AUS- MEAT.
Rebecca Wicks: Quality Assurance Manager - Farms, Milne Agrigroup
Rebecca has held this position for 13 years and is responsible for manag- ing the quality systems for both pork and chicken within the Agrigroup busi- ness farming sector.
This also includes devel- oping and implementing processes while oversee- ing all internal and exter- nal audits, training, bio- security and welfare.
She has attended the Australian Pork Lim- ited Delegates’ Forums over the past two years as a proxy to develop her knowledge of national pig industry issues and is ac- tively involved in the Pig Biosecurity Consultative group in Western Austral- ia discussing many issues that directly impact WA farms.
Recently, she has joined the Australian Produce Commission Pork Produc- ers Committee.
David Lines: Manager, Production Support, SunPork Farms South
David has held this posi-
tion for the past two years. David commenced working in the Australian pork industry eight years ago as a research officer at Australian Pork Farms Group, Wasleys Piggery, after the completion of his PhD at the University of
Adelaide.
In his current role, his
responsibilities are diverse and include the oversight of APIQP/QA for Sun- Pork Farms South, liaising with the EPA and local council/Biosecurity SA, implementation of genet- ic programs, production benchmarking, strategy development and the over- sight of grower/ finisher research at one of the larg- est R&D facilities in Aus- tralia.
Terenzo Valmonte: Farm Manager, Peppe- rina Piggery (Cameron Pastoral Company)
Terenzo has held this po- sition for over four years and is responsible for the management of the 4500- sow farm and its 14 staff to produce 2150 piglets per week.
He works alongside the general manager and herd veterinarian in tackling production issues within the Pepperina unit and the four other breeder units that make up the 12,500 sows of Cameron Pastoral Company.
Over the past four years, the Pepperina Piggery has demonstrated significant improvements in repro- duction performance.
Terenzo believes he has accomplished these out- comes by leading a highly motivated and passionate group at Pepperina and with the support of the company’s production leadership team.
Rob Bayley: Manager, Blackwood Piggery
Rob manages his family owned 550-sow farrow to finish piggery.
He is responsible for
the day-to-day operation of the piggery including genetics and breeding, nutrition, animal health, maintenance, staffing and worker health and safety.
Rob also manages the financial side of the busi- ness and endeavours to ensure accurate financial and performance data is available to allow him to make informed business decisions.
He strives for continuous improvement and imple- ments best practice pro- cedures to minimise op- erating costs while main- taining the highest animal welfare standards.
Rob considers this has assisted the business to remain profitable during tough market conditions.
Rob is currently a mem- ber of the VFF council, the Australian Pork Young Leaders Group and has at- tended A PL Delegates’ Forums.
He enjoys discussing industry challenges and developing proactive re- sponses with the group before they impact the in- dustry.
I am very excited by the calibre of these individu- als and their demonstrated commitment to the Aus- tralian pork industry and look forward to hearing of their personal and pro- fessional growth resulting from their participation in this course.
I strongly encourage those who were unsuc- cessful this time around as well as others inter- ested in undertaking this course to apply for the next course when it opens in early 2020.
If you would like to dis- cuss or require any fur- ther information, please feel free to contact either myself or Ashley Norval (Ashley.Norval@australi- anpork.com.au or 0437 177 527).
Rural Health and Safety
Incidents of death, injury and illness in agricultural workplaces have prompted Rural Research and De- velopment Corporations to renew their focus on work health and safety.
As such, APL is part of a new partnership with eight other RDCs to form the Rural Safety and Health Alliance.
These are: AgriFutures Australia, Australian Eggs, Australian Wool In- novation, Cotton Research
and Development Corpo- ration, Dairy Australia, Fisheries Research & Development Corpora- tion, Grains Research & Development Corporation and Meat & Livestock Australia.
The RSHA is led by in- dependent Chair Patrick Murphy, with support from Andrew Barrett as executive officer.
The RSHA’s aim is to reduce death, injury and illness across Australia’s agricultural industries by funding cross-sectoral re- search, development and extension projects that will lead to practical and effective solutions to ad- dress workplace health and safety issues.
Many other industries have shown a positive association between im- proved work health and safety and better business outcomes including pro- ductivity, staff retention and quality.
APL sees a significant positive upside to creat- ing safer working environ- ments for our producers and stockpeople as well as reducing negative out- comes.
The funding of RSHA projects will be on an opt-in basis, which gives RDCs the ability to col- laboratively invest in ini- tiatives informed by in- dustry feedback on work, health and safety risks and priorities, while remain- ing focused on supporting projects of specific rel- evance to their respective industries.
APL is seeking feedback from producers, proces- sors and other members at all levels within the pork industry about health and safety challenges and pri- orities in their workplaces.
This will be used to determine our invest- ment priorities within the RSHA moving forward.
If you have any feed- back on this, or would like more information, please contact Rachael Bryant at APL at rachael.bryant@ australianpork.com.au
Similarly, you can reg- ister for updates directly from the RSHA at rsha. com.au
For further information on any items discussed in this article, please contact me on 0423 056 045 or heather.channon@austral ianpork.com.au
by HEATHER CHANNON Research and Innovation General Manager
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Page 2 – Australian Pork Newspaper, May 2019
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