Help at hand for county's pig farmers (From Gazette & Herald)

Help at hand for county's pig farmers

YORKSHIRE pig farmers are being invited to "Walk the Food Chain" at a special one-day event designed at increasing their knowledge and understanding of market and consumer requirements.

The Defra sponsored programme is being organised by agriculture consultant Mike Doyle and Bishop Burton College.

The pig farmers' event will be based at the college on Wednesday, February 15, from 9am, but it will include site visits to Morrisons supermarket in Beverley to discuss consumer requirements.

Then the group will visit Cranswick Country Foods at Preston, near Hull, to see demonstrations of variation of carcase quality and classification.

After lunch at the college, there will be a discussion led by Mr Doyle on the production stage of the supply chain looking at key factors such as nutrition, genetics and welfare.

Mr Doyle, who was head of agriculture and business for 20 years at Bishop Burton College, said this was a challenging time for pig farmers and for farming as a whole. He said half the country's pig meat - and 80 per cent of its bacon - was imported.

"Through events like this we want to help farmers understand the links in the production, processing and supply chain and to improve their knowledge of how to serve the needs of the market and the consumer.

The event is free but pig farmers who are interested should book a place by contacting Bishop Burton College's business development unit on (01964) 553034. For more information contact Mike Doyle in the evenings on (01262) 488435.

Yorkshire pig farmers are also being given an opportunity to see how their counterparts in France work the food chain by visiting pig units, a meat factory and a supermarket in Lamballe, Brittany.

This Defra sponsored trip from March 14 to 16 is designed to show farmers the co-operative approach the French have taken to reduce costs and add value to their products. They will also gain an insight into how the French produce their pigs and how they have adapted to tackle disease and improve animal health and performance.

The trip is being organised by Bishop Burton College, EFFP (English Food and Farming Partnership) and Yorkshire Farmers pig marketing co-operative. The trip is free but farmers will need to pay a small deposit on booking to cover some expenses. To book contact Paul Rhodes of EFFP on (01430) 860552

Updated: 15:42 Wednesday, January 18, 2006