Monday
Early start to travel down to Newmarket for a meeting I have arranged between the industry and the south-east AHVLA, now called Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) to confuse everyone, to discuss regional preparedness for an Avian Influenza outbreak. These meetings have allowed members to highlight issues that have cropped up in previous outbreaks, build relationships and it has also give APHA a better insight in to the different sectors and how restrictions may affect them – eggs, broilers, turkeys, ducks and geese. Future plans include inviting the Environment Agency and Public Health England to build a relationship and increase their understanding of the industry and also a table top exercise.
Tuesday
A day in the office to catch up on paperwork – Gary and I have lots of projects on at the moment which include managing the free on-farm campylobacter testing project, re-launching the shed age survey and organising a 2015 Poultry Industry Programme for younger poultry farmers. Gary is attending the first evidence session for the All Parliamentary Group for Eggs, Pigs and Poultry (APPG) on planning. The group is a cross-party group for members of the House of Commons and House of Lords with an interest in the egg, poultry meat and pork sectors. I attended the welfare session where we had RSPCA giving evidence. Beak tipping was discussed and I was reassured to hear them acknowledge that we are not yet in a position to go ahead with the ban in 2016. The pig industry has a similar issue with tail docking, which is banned under EU legislation, pig producers have to demonstrate they have exhausted every avenue to manage tail biting before vets can allow them to dock tails.
Wednesday
Today is the day the online turkey box and merchandise shop goes live, after a few small teething problems the shop seems to be running ok. This year the consumer facing turkey campaign will include turkey selfies, pictures of quality British turkeys cooked to perfection which can be shared online, win-a-turkey competitions and tips on what to do with your left overs. I have thoroughly enjoyed attending the turkey meetings across the country and tonight’s meeting is no exception. The meeting held in Cosby, Leicestershire, was sponsored by Lloyds Animal Feeds, and attracted 30 producers. As well as the NFU presenting costs of production we also had, poultry vet, Michael Clark, talking about Blackhead in turkeys. The meetings have been very inspirational with farmers talking about how they promote their turkeys and it makes me want to buy some poults next year – I just need to persuade my Dad to kill them! Wishing everyone ‘Happy Christmas’ feels very bizarre in mid-October. For all those, non-turkey farmers, visit www.ukturkeys.co.uk to find your local turkey producer and get your order in.
Thursday
I am in London for a meeting to discuss the British Poultry Training Scheme. The poultry industry is leading the way with this scheme as we are able to demonstrate the mechanism for training staff within the sector and ensuring high standards of food hygiene, welfare and health and safety. It also gives staff opportunities to learn new skills and progress their skills. I would urge all producers to ensure that they are up to date with training. We are a professional forward-thinking industry and we need to ensure we invest time in initiatives like this that demonstrate these qualities.
Friday
Every week the NFU holds a tele-conference call which allows regional colleagues to get up to date with current issues in each sector. Today is my turn to update them on the free on-farm testing for campylobacter. The NFU has managed to secure funding to allow farmers to test their flocks for free. The testing is simple – farmers receive the boot swabs, they test their flocks within 24 hours of thin, promptly post the samples and receive a text with the results. If the result is negative you test the flock again at the next thin (or depopulation) and if the result is positive you do not test again. If you haven’t signed up yet visit www.act-nfu.org
Finally, as we come in to the Christmas period we are expecting the campylobacter retail shelf results to come out in mid-November. With the retailers being named the media spotlight is likely to be on them but we have prepared a plan in case the spotlight turns to us.
With a large national layer flock we are still seeing unexplained shortages in free range - we wait with anticipation to see what will happen in the market place.
Turning to the Christmas turkey market I have been sussing out what the supermarkets are up to, so far Tesco’s is the cheapest place to buy your turkey (discounters and Asda still to publish prices). A standard turkey is being marketed in Tesco at £5.00/kg, the Free Range Bronze at £7.50/kg and it will be interesting to see the prices of the discounter’s birds after their very successful Christmas last year.