Eye on Europe

Breeders of these curly-coated Hungarian pigs are finding out that demand for their fat-marbled meat is attracting premium prices.

by NORMAN DUNN

Pork meat from the heavy, curly-coated woolly swine, the Mangalitsa, is selling in the United States, and now in Spain, for at least 30 per cent more than meat from conventional commercial hybrids.

The demand is mainly from restaurateurs who claim that pork dishes from the Hungarian breed are tastier because the meat is “marbled” with intramuscular fat. Also in high demand: Sausages and salamis from Mangalitsa meat. In Hungary, one farm in particular claims to have rescued the once-common outdoor breed from oblivion after the collapse of the communist system in the early 1990s.

New environmental, animal welfare and consumer protection charges are costing producers in the Netherlands their position at the head of the European efficiency table

by NORMAN DUNN

Pig farmers in the Netherlands reduced their production costs until they were the lowest in Europe. But the advantage has been lost in just two years through new environmental, animal welfare and consumer protection expenses.

By increasing enzyme activity in the stomach, this cooked and vacuum-coated pellet feed improves digestibility and increases absorption of N and P

by NORMAN DUNN

A Dutch co-operative is developing a hog feed using pellet cooking technology to produce a product claimed to improve all-round feeding hog performance with average daily liveweight gain of 844 grams and a 30 per cent improvement in feed conversion ratio in trials. At the same time, it is showing reduced emissions of phosphate and nitrogen in the manure.

Tests indicated not only that average litter sizes were larger with double deposition but also that these litters could be
safely achieved with less volume of semen

by NORMAN DUNN

Spanish pig insemination specialist Magapor claims to be the first in the world to introduce a double-deposition catheter for sow AI. This is a 1.5 metre-long catheter which deposits semen under pressure, both post-cervical and intrauterine, at a ratio of 80:20.

The company claims that two years of research and field trials with the new “Maga+DD” system and trials indicate that it can give 0.7 extra field piglets per litter through helping to ensure higher sperma delivery in the uterus horns.

Plans already underway in Switzerland and the Netherlands to ban traditional hog castration have stimulated ideas that should reduce stress on the operators as well as the male hogs

by NORMAN DUNN

Switzerland has determined that no hog castration will take place without anaesthetic as from 2010 and already some retailers are refusing to market meat from traditionally castrated males. In the Netherlands, an alliance of food trade, retailers and farmers has agreed to call a halt even earlier – from March 1, 2009.

In Germany, veterinarians, hog breeders and feeders co-operate to ensure that the health history and feeding information of weaners are faxed ahead of them when they travel

by NORMAN DUNN

German swine producers have developed a voluntary hog health passport system for better control of disease in feeding units.

The “passport” is filled out by the farm veterinary when a batch of weaners is shipped to a separate feeding unit and is signed by both the vet and the farmer involved. Most of the schemes also allow for details of weaner feed rations, feeding system and even type of pen to be filled in, too.

So says a U.K. study which is mapping each stage of the food chain to pinpoint the most environmentally-friendly production methods

by NORMAN DUNN

A new carbon mapping project for food in Britain claims that global sourcing of hog feed could be more effective against climate warming than using grain from nearby fields.

In the University of Northumbria study, CO2 equivalents produced by each stage from feed growing through hog feeding, slaughter, pork processing, distribution and selling in the stores is mapped to pinpoint the most environmentally-friendly production methods. This has produced a “carbon footprint” for each part of the process and the aim of the project is to use this information in marketing at the retail level.

When these German farmers pen their weaners in the feeding barn, they’ll know the slaughter price for each. But, in return, the co-operative involved demands that high welfare and environmental standards are followed

by NORMAN DUNN

Continually moving air pressure beneath the lying sows will prevent shoulder sores in nursing sows, believes this Danish barn builder

by NORMAN DUNN

The principle of variable-pressure pneumatic mattresses, developed originally to avoid development of pressure sores with bed-ridden patients in hospitals, has been applied in farrowing crate flooring to avoid shoulder sores with nursing sows.

Savings of up to 15 per cent can be realized by converting old barns to the system, which results in less stress for piglets and improved temperament for group nursing sows

by NORMAN DUNN

More group nursing could be introduced in sow herds, according to Barbara Früh of the Organic Agriculture Research Institute (FiBL) in Frick, Switzerland. The system has sows moving from individual farrowing pens after a minimum 10 days suckling into groups of usually four with a minimum 3.5 square metres of lying area per sow and litter.