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Cooperative and livestock feed supplier Land O'Lakes Inc has developed an 'aligned' pork production system to supply uniform 45-lb pigs to 960-head finishing barns around its affiliated feed mills. The cooperative's swine production division will supply 2,400-sow farrowing units in Missouri, Illinois and other states outside Iowa. Hog raisers will buy the pigs and in return receive feeds and technical support, with the final selling decision left to farmers if the produce is to be sold to outside buyers or to the cooperative.

During the first 39 weeks of the year (up to September 28) throughput at pork abattoirs in France's 'Grand Ouest' (Brittany, Normandy, the Loire and Poitou-Charentes), which accounts for 70% [...]

Iowa State University economist John Lawrence believes that the pork production system is steadily changing from its traditional barrier-ridden configuration. Lawrence stated that communication between the different profit centers is improving, thus facilitating the identification and measurement of price signals. He advised producers to focus on value-added production.

Tom Frantzen has developed a method for cutting the cost of raising hogs by 50%. The method combines modern intensive grazing, soil-saving strip crops for pasture and farrowing on corn. Frantzen disagrees with the conventional view that pasture farrowing is labor intensive.

Carroll's Foods Inc. will construct a 2,400-sow facility in northern Iowa. The site in Iowa was chosen due to its proximity to packing plants and plentiful and inexpensive grain supplies. A Carroll's spokesman said that they will establish alliances with producers and that their facility has attracted the interest of grain farmers in the area. Carroll's will be sensitive to the environmental impact of their operations due to the vocal opposition of small hog producers.

Pork producers are urged to focus on asset management and best-cost production since they are the keys to survival in the highly-competitive pork production sector. Reports from Nebraska show that asset manager/best-cost producers who have management plans and focus on details lead manure shovelers by almost $30 per pig, which translates to approximately $50,000 annually for producers selling 1,800 hogs per year.

INDIANA Packers Corp. has acquired 30 acres next to its plant in Delphi, Ind., to expand hog slaughter and pork processing operations, according to company president Gary Jacobson. He said [...]

The onus for making bacon better for the consumer has been on producers for some time, with emphasis on both eating quality and now farm assurances. Keely Harrison went to [...]

Pig Improvement Co, a British breeding stock firm, predicts that 30 pigs weaned per sow per year will be normal by 2012 with simple low-tech methods. Pig breeders in Britain and Europe have bred more selectively than US farmers and have reached higher yields.

A new 'healthier' bacon that contains much less salt and fat than traditional bacon has been developed by Scottish producers. The bacon, which has 25% less salt and 20% less [...]

Pork farmers are warning their income could fall below the cost of production if the margin crisis affecting the sector continues. The Deadweight Average Pig Price, which measures profitability, stood [...]

CALLING the last 12 months 'one of the company's most challenging years in three decades,' Smithfield Foods Inc. last week reported horrendous losses for its 2009 fourth quarter and full [...]

Sausages have soared up to 50% in price over the past year thanks to constricting UK and EU pork supplies and the weak pound. The average price of a six-pack [...]

* Government criticised for placing heavy financial burden on farmers * Certain retail, sectors accused of undermining efforts of pig industry No-one should be lulled into a stupor of complacency [...]

A honeycomb of sealed chambers to eliminate the possibility of cross contamination between high care and low risk areas and with no cross-over between raw and cooked meat, is the [...]

Hygiene Management System at Leeming Bar North Yorkshire-based Harris - Leeming Bar has opened a new facility at Leases Road where particular attention has been paid to installing a hygiene [...]

Bpex has offered more than 300,000 [pounds sterling] in grants to Regional Development Authorities to help boost skill levels in the British pig industry. Some 77,000 [pounds sterling] has already [...]

Two recent surveys by the NPA and the British Pig Executive conducted among farmers showed there is danger that British production could be all but wiped out within a year [...]

The recent retail price increases of pork - for which producers are successfully campaigning--is not reaching farmers. As a result it is estimated that one in three could quit the [...]

Danish bacon processor Tulip will invest up to 50m [pounds sterling] in upgrading its British factories this year, according to MD Carsten Jacobsen. He denied that the business was under [...]

According to a new report released by Agrarisch Dagblad, the pork producers in Belgium and Netherlands have low production costs when compared top other European countries. The average production cost stood at 1.23 euros per kilogram.