Behind the Lines - June 2012

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

It was two years ago that Carol Mitchell, then Ontario's agriculture minister, reviewed a decision of the Ontario Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal and ordered the Farm Products Marketing Commission to go ahead with plans to dismantle the exclusive powers of Ontario Pork, the provincial marketing board as of Dec. 1, 2010. This was done despite the trepidation of many producers, who feared that their collective marketing powers would be lost forever. Eighteen months have passed since the December 2010 deadline arrived and Better Pork writer Mary Baxter reports that pork producers find that the sun still comes up every morning. That story starts on page 6.

It's Ontario Pork Congress time and, though the number of pigs produced and the number of producers in Ontario is greatly reduced, congress operators have hopes that enthusiasm for the industry has returned. The Junior Barrow Show, separated from the pork congress at the height of foot-and-mouth disease concerns more than a decade ago, is back, albeit with some concessions made to biosecurity. Read about that, and the reasons why, starting on page 38.

Our nutrition writer Janice Murphy looks at U.S. research which demonstrates that feeding granulated lysozyme to newly weaned pigs can be as effective as antibiotics in improving the workings of the small intestine and decreasing Campylobacter prevalence. Her story begins on page 40.

On page 48, European contributor Norman Dunn tells us that Danish pigs get the day off to a good start with a serving of yogurt, which doesn't seem like a bad idea. On the other hand, he reports on a Berlin organic producer who markets jars of swine liver sausage (leberwurst) and includes a photo of the pig that was slaughtered to produce the product. BP

ROBERT IRWIN