One of the biggest events in the pig industry calendar will get underway today. Pigs 2022 – the Opportunities, organised by Pig World and AHDB Pork, will bring together top speakers from around the world to discuss the big issues facing the sector.
International Outlook Conference
The event will kick off on Tuesday at Solihull’s St Johns Hotel with the International Outlook Conference and dinner. Speakers will include Nicholas D. Giordano, from the US National Pork Producers Council, who will outline his vision for the US, pig industry in the Trump era, while the Danish perspective, Brexit and all, will be provided by Asger Krozsgaard, deputy chairman of Danish Crown.
There will be an overview of the potential impact of Brexit on the British pork sector ,while McDonalds UK’s director of supply chainConnor McVeigh will outline what the fast food giant’s consumers want from pork? Adam Couch, chief executive of Cranswick Country Foods, will offer his views on the future for the British pork industry.
Innovation Conference
On day two, Wednesday, June 7, the Innovation Conference, free to all English levy payers, will take place.
One of the most eagerly awaited sessions will be the unveiling of the results of the three-year Minapig Project, which has looked at alternatives to antimicrobial use in pig production. Running from 2012 to 2015, the European-wide project has seen studies conducted in France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland.
These include investigations into the efficacy and effectiveness of alternatives to antimicrobials and surveys of vets and farmers to identify the factors influencing their choices on alternative disease control strategies.
The winners of the UK strand of the first ‘EU PiG Grand Prix’, a contest to identify best practice across the EU’s pig industry, will be announced at the end of the day. Overall, the competition, led by AHDB Pork, has received an impressive 247 entries from 13 member states and regions. The winning best practice producers will be appointed as EU PiG Ambassadors.
There will also be break out sessions on ‘The Sow of the Future’ and ‘Meat of the Future’, and specialist technical sessions for indoor and outdoor producers.
There has been great interest on the event, with hundreds due to attend from all sectors of the industry. You will be able to read full coverage of the conference in the July edition of Pig World and on this website.
For more on the programme, speakers, sponsors and venue, see the dedicated Pigs 2022 website.
Download the app
In recognition of some of the key themes of the two-day event – innovation, technology and interaction – we have developed an app especially for the conference.
Downloading the app will provide delegates with all the information they need about the event, which takes place on June 6 and 7, including the programme and the speakers.
It will also provide an opportunity for you to ask questions of the panellists throughout the event. Questions that you post via the app during over the two days will be fed through to the conference chairs, AHDB strategy director Mick Sloyan and Pig World editor Alistair Driver, to put to the panellists.
And we will be using the app to ask the audience for their thoughts on the big issues discussed during the packed sessions. To encourage you to download the app before the conference begins, we have posted a couple of teasers on there already:
1) In light of both the current market conditions and Brexit, how confident do you feel about the future of the UK pig sector?
a) Very confident. Time to expand
b) Cautiously optimistic. Opportunity for stability
c) Nervous. Too much uncertainty
d) Very concerned. Dark clouds on the horizon
2) One of the sessions on day two will focus on free farrowing. How do you feel about free farrowing in the UK?
a) It’s the future. Consumer power – time to embrace it
b) We will see more of it, where feasible. But only limited growth
c) Too many barriers. Can’t see it taking off
How to download the app
To answer the above questions and to make sure you are fully prepared for the conference, we are encouraging delegates to download the app now. Access is only permitted to registered delegates of the conference and those we have uploaded onto the system.
Simply go to the app store and search for Pigs 2022. Once you have downloaded it, you will need to enter your email and set a password. Then just remember to bring your phone to Solihull!