Page 13 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Race for festive season break
IT has been an extremely busy time over the past few months for me in Denmark, with quite a few things happening in the pig industry and be- yond.
ducers being able to gather for the ‘Pig Congress’ in person for the first time since 2019, and despite the current industry situation, the general atmosphere for the event was actually quite positive, with a new record for attendee num- bers at the dinner.
Nordic
News
by ASHLEY NORVAL
In this article, I hope to summarise the largest issues currently facing ag- riculture in Denmark.
Pig prices
Most of the topics of discussion were the gov- ernance of the industry, the state and forecast of the Danish and European pig production, proposed legislation changes and updates on research pro- jects recently completed by SEGES.
Pig prices continue to be fairly terrible, though they have lifted slightly over the past four weeks.
Mink inquiry
It would seem that some crucial evidence in text messages and communi- cation between the Prime Minister and her advisors have been destroyed and were unable to be recov- ered.
The Danish krone (or crown) has amazingly de- livered a profit to owners despite the price crash in the second half of the year, which will support the 1600 cooperative owners who supply slaughter pigs with a supplementary pay- ment of 1.30 DKK per kg ($A0.27).
It was actually the De- cember issue of Australian Pork Newspaper last year that I wrote of the govern- ment’s decision to cull all mink in Denmark due to the perceived risk of a COVID-19 mutation.
Though there are some mink producers who are trying to establish a re- population, it appears highly unlikely given that all breeding stock were also destroyed in Den- mark and in other parts of Europe also.
In next month’s article I will provide a summary of the research outcomes and recommendations from that event as well as the Danish Veterinary As- sociation Conference.
Despite this being a lower payment than 2020, it has been far more prof- itable for producers to keep pigs in Denmark for slaughter instead of ex- porting them to Germany and beyond as weaners.
Approximately 17 mil- lion mink were culled and buried and are today still being dug up and trucked across the country for incineration due to envi- ronmental contamination from carcass decomposi- tion.
The incident has been eye opening for all Danish animal production indus- tries – with the pig in- dustry at least looking at ways that it can prevent such a thing being forced on it.
On a lighter note, my best wishes to everyone for a merry Christmas and a safe, happy and healthy new year.
The market for 30kg weaners for export con- tinues to be tough for pro- ducers at the moment, due to the perfect storm of Af- rican swine fever in Ger- many reducing exports to China, approximately 6000 German producers leaving the market this year and COVID-19 – af- fecting both the ability of the processing plants in Germany to operate due to lack of staffing and the severely reduced shipping industry affecting logistics of meat.
There are some lessons here in effective and safe animal carcass disposal from disease.
After two years away, I am very much looking forward to being able to travel home, and hope- fully I am able to catch up with some of you when I’m back in December and January.
The detection of ASF in a domestic herd outside of Rostock in Germany indi- cates that the infection has moved significantly closer to Denmark.
This new detection means that the infec- tion has ‘jumped’ the Polish German contain- ment fence established by German authorities and has moved approximately 100km closer.
The Danish Agriculture and Food Council chief veterinary consultant Jan Dahl has stated that this is not a ‘panic situation’ for the Danish industry – highlighting that though it is a worrying develop- ment, Denmark continues to be prepared with strict biosecurity protocols and washing routines at the Danish German border, the wild boar fence be- tween Denmark and Ger- many and guidelines on biosecurity at farm level for staff and visitors.
However, the transport matrix was updated on November 16 to extend the ‘red’ and ‘black’ zones to reflect the new infec- tion location, and a review into the current proce- dures will be carried out with all relevant industry representatives to identify if further restrictions are necessary.
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Australian Pork Newspaper, December 2021 – Page 13
For the past month or so there has been an ongoing investigation into this de- cision – so far with no result.
Grisekongres
The Danish Transport Standard Zones for ASF Infections. Green zone = risk areas, red zone = high risk areas, black zone = areas under increased state of alert, where haulers are not allowed to drive to a Danish herd if they have driven in a black zone within the past seven days. Credit: SEGES Danish Pig Research Centre
Late October saw pro-
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In week 47, the price per piglet was 19 Euro ($A29.57), continuing to result in a loss for Danish producers.
ASF moving closer