Innovative pork industry programs bring positive results

A very positive picture was painted for the Cooperative Research Centre for High Integrity Australian Pork at its 2016 annual general meeting and stakeholders’ meeting in Melbourne recently.

Pork CRC completed its fifth year of an eight-year agreement with the Federal Government and participants on June 30.

Chairman Dennis Mutton and chief executive Roger Campbell agreed that 2015-16 had been a year of considerable achievement, with significant outcomes across Pork CRC’s four programs and positive plans and projects in place as it transitions towards 2019-20 and the start-up of Australasian Pork Research Institute Ltd.

Mr Mutton said Pork CRC’s four program areas, which centred on sow and piglet management, herd health, growing consumption of pork and delivering through a carbon conscious industry, had continued to generate innovative solutions.

“The calibre of Pork CRC’s program research partners continues to be outstanding and, in particular, I acknowledge the support of our participants, a number of whom have continued to show their commitment to the cause of quality R&D by signing up as foundation members of APRIL,” Mr Mutton said.

Dr Campbell said in the past year, participants and researchers had made further progress in understanding and enhancing sow and piglet welfare.

“With almost 80 per cent of Australian producers now having transitioned to group housing of gestating sows, sow confinement has been reduced by about 80 per cent. Pork CRC research has improved the eating quality of Australian pork, demonstrated how effluent can be successfully converted into useable biogas, shown how grains and other ingredients can be more efficiently used through processing and NIRS technologies, and given industry tools to better understand and control common diseases,” Dr Campbell said.

“I am particularly pleased to report that our R&D program has more than been matched by our education and training program, which has markedly increased the capacity and capability of the industry and will certainly help secure its future.”