Better Pork - August 2016

30 / 40

30 Better pork August 2016
FEATURE
Women in Britain’s pork industry promote
the bacon
Low pork prices this summer mean
hard times for the swine sector
throughout Europe, with the equiva-
lent of C $15 loss for every slaughter
hog produced. However, U.K. hog
farmers at least have useful pork
marketing help from a unique band
of volunteers: a 300-strong team
with the attractive acronym of LIPS
(Ladies in PIGS). These supporters
are the wives and girlfriends of hog
farmers, or are women with other
connections in pork marketing and
processing, and they travel the coun-
try promoting sales of homegrown
pork.
LIPS got started during a similar
income crisis exactly 25 years ago.
Back then, a few hog farmers’ wives
decided to help their family busi-
nesses by turning up at county fairs
to prepare and sell bacon sand-
wiches or sausages made only from
top quality British pork. Then, as
now, the comparatively high-cost
British sector was losing sales on
the home market through cheaper
pork products imported from the
European mainland. Beating the
drum for the home-produced pork
proved successful. Public aware-
ness of British pork has continually
increased, according to the sector’s
national organization AHDB Pork
(UK Agriculture and Horticulture
Development Board—Pork).
Long-serving LIPS chairperson
is Sue Woodall. “I’ve a lifetime of
dealing with pork and pork products
behind me, so it was second nature
to help promote the home industry,”
she recalls.
Sue and her team nowadays visit
60 to 70 events with their LIPS mo-
bile kitchen each year. Schools are
also visited for daylong pork promo-
tions and now about 40 corporations
are involved in sponsorship of the
LIPS initiative. Largely through
LIPS input, pork is now guaranteed
a place in the school curriculum as
part of a “Farm to Fork” program,
telling kids — and teachers — all
about agriculture and its food supply
chain.
An oil change for sows reduces weight
loss
Litters get larger, and so good sows
must produce more milk. One nega-
tive result is that sows often lose a
lot of weight and condition during
suckling, with detrimental effects
on subsequent conception and litter
size.
Could there be a feed ingredient
out there to help prevent this weight
loss? Seeking an answer to this long-
asked question are scientists at the
Futterkamp Agricultural Research
Centre and College in north Ger-
man Schleswig Holstein. They’ve
found a promising feed supplement
in this respect: conjugated linoleic
oil. First tests with a small portion of
this omega-6 oil in lactation rations
ladies in PIGS is a group of women that helps promote
the pork industry in Britain. It got its start 25 years ago.