Pig Melt Down

Pat's Note:

There is pretty well total melt down all over the world with pork production
being slashed. Vast number of pigs have died in China and PRRS (yes, yet
another name) is giving massive problems in the US.

Feed prices are, of course, a major factor.

This downturn has to be used to restock with disease free pigs. The time
should be used productively to seek out stock, change systems permanently to
something less risky and more sustainable. It is time for pyramids and their
suicidal husbandry systems to go and not to be replaced.

I do not like or approve some of the things still going on in Britain.

The pig industry has a very bad record of deliberately misleading
advertising. BPEX has even had TV adverts banned and the entire industry
tries to present the deplorable large indoor units as being the same as the
best medium sized outdoor herds.

Big corporations encouraged by Defra hide behind decent farmers with good
practices seeking to steal their justified premium price.

Some of these misleading stuff is being exposed by TV even the RSPCA etc and
we can leave them to it.

But the latest advertising wheeze deliberately tries to hide under the
umbrella of the generally very good rare breeds sector. If I still had rare
breeds I would be furious and on my way to the Advertising Standards
Authority.

The theme is "Save a rare breed" meaning the British pig industry and its
commercial breeds.

By the way, having had both, I can't say I'm keen on rare breed meat, but
neither am I keen on PMWS infected meat. I dumped an entire commercial pig
as inedible. Good commercial breeds when healthy do, in my opinion, give the
best meat.

We got CSF and FMD because of the efforts of international breeders to breed
out PMWS by bringing in clean stock. Like everything else encouraged by the
SVS it was a disaster through incompetance, corruption and lack of
supervision, but the idea seems sound.

Britain's rare breeds, if and when PMWS free, may be a hidden resource
needing protecting.

They should not used as camouflage by the big factory producers to try to
squeeze the last pound out of a disease ridden and failing industry by
misleading the public.


--
Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.com


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Relevant Pages

  • Re: PMWS - still an increasing problem
    ... cost of production league table to being the country with the lowest cost. ... rise from 1,687 kg of pig meat a year to 1,940 kg!" ... Mixed News On Production Costs ... The annual cost of production report, just published by the British Pig ...
    (uk.business.agriculture)
  • Canada - Pig Troubles
    ... Against a bleak background of melt down in pork production ... Minnesota Pork Congress, Mark Greenwood of AgStar Financial Services said ... Saskatchewan government of being Socialist in matters pig. ...
    (uk.business.agriculture)
  • Re: Does Pat Gardiner tell lies?
    ... industrial scale producer about making an investment in a pig farm. ... I imagine that in reasonable times that gives him a production of 60,000 pa. ... Cranswick had some problems on what they paid farmers and had ... may prove to be a blessing to a beleaguered industry. ...
    (uk.business.agriculture)
  • MRSA - Decline in pig production
    ... percent fall could be entirely consistent with a fall in the number of pig ... You would expect to see a fall in MRSA if pigs were involved. ... consistent with the decline in pig production forecast and probably the same ... a failure to see any significant rise in pig prices in the next few ...
    (uk.business.agriculture)