🇯🇵 Pork promotion! Though no pigs have been awarded higher positions in their companies, the US Meat Export Federation has launched a new campaign in October to provide strong promotional support for US pork in Japan. 

• A facilitator is that Japan's foodservice sector struggled last year due to pandemic restrictions. 

• But an obstacle is that Japanese consumers are loyal to domestic pork and traditionally, many restaurants are reluctant to admit they use imported pork.

However…...

Not a day, not a week, but a whole month dedicated to pork! That’s right: Governor Mike Parson has proclaimed October as Pork Month in the state of Missouri. 

• Pride of the nation: the act is in recognition of the high-quality pork produced by Missouri pig farmers and their families. 🇺🇸

• The state’s pork industry ranks sixth in the nation.

Truth be told, tremendous progress has been made in the pork industry through research in genetics, which has resulted in economical and nut...

🇩🇪 In August, the stock of pork in the German cold stores hit its lowest this year!

• According to ISN, the interest group of Germany’s pig farmers, stocks have been so greatly reduced that they’re back at a level that’s only slightly higher than before the start of the corona crisis (!)

What could have possibly caused this issue?

• Higher prices make outsourcing more interesting and refilling less lucrative. 

• Rising energy costs make interim storage more expensive.

...

There’s no point in crying over spilled milk… But what about spilled bacteria? An ongoing collaboration between the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) and the Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases, at the University of Georgia, is examining the risk of bacterial spillover from North American wild animals into the US swine herds. 

• A huge concern… Because bacteria are responsible for a high degree of morbidity and mortality in swine, which leads to substantial losses to the indus...

Nope, no deal so far! A labor strike along US railroads is still a possibility after the third-largest railroad union rejected a tentative labor agreement this week. 

• The agreement had support from the White House, but without all unions voting in favor of the agreement, a labor strike could still go down in mid-November. 

• Why did they say no? Union leaders argue that the railroads didn’t do enough to address worker concerns – mostly working conditions and paid time off. 

Now...

This week, the US Supreme Court is set to hear the arguments of the swine industry against the constitutionality of Proposition 12 – a Californian law that bans the sale of pork from animals whose confinement fails to meet minimum space requirements. 

• Since Prop 12 has been creating quite a fuss, we’ve talked about it before. Check out more details here!

The National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation argue that:

• The cage size used by producers DOES ...

Increasing pig growth performance is a topic that I am sure you are all familiar with. It has direct economically applicable results and can increase the health of the herd at the same time. In this episode, I talk with AJ Warner about a study he performed feeding Tri-basic copper chloride in conjunction with an ionophore to grow-finish pigs and evaluating their affects on growth performance throughout the finishing period.

Meet the guest:

Alan (AJ) Warner is a Research Manager at New Fas...