Rabobank Pork Quarterly Diagnostic Sampling - the where when and why! Your flock have taken a turn for the worse, egg production has dropped, egg quality is poor or mortality has increased what do you do? A guide for pig keepers This guide provides information for pig keepers on registering, identifying and moving your pigs. Whether you keep one pet pig or a commercial herd you must by law be registered as a pig keeper with the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA). In the event of a disease outbreak, knowing the precise location of all livestock is essential for effective measures to control and eradicate disease. You place both your own and other livestock in the area at risk if you do not register your holding or report notifiable diseases. Groceries Code Adjudicator : Supporting facts with questions and answers Quick reference guide to the work of the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA). It provides answers to questions to help explain our role. It also covers the Statutory Guidance consultation. Remote Hawaiian Microgrid The microgrid system in Hawaii is a recent project we are very proud of, as it was able to open up 400 acres of previously unused farm land by providing irrigation water in an area where there was no grid to provide the power. The relationship between supermarkets and suppliers: This paper explores supermarket buyer power and the ways in which such power affects suppliers and  consumers. It finds that the abuse of buyer power is widely and routinely practised against suppliers and that, if not immediately, certainly over time, such abuse will inevitably damage consumers too. Yet competition authorities have largely failed to deal with this problem, so that detriments to suppliers and consumers have gone on for many years.   The paper concludes that effective measures to prevent unfair business-to-business commercial practices and the resulting detriments to both small-scale producers and consumers are urgently needed. Remedies should be based on a fundamental principle of fair dealing and should be enforceable and binding. All suppliers (in national, regional and global supply chains) should have effective recourse to protection. Consumer organisations have an important role to play in mitigating the negative effects of buyer power. Milk production figures released – May The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has received details from milk purchasers of the amount of milk produced for delivery in May 2013. The United Kingdom wholesale milk deliveries totalled 1,229.4 litres in May, the second month of the new milk year. The cumulative total for the year is now 2,341 litres. The wholesale delivery figures have not been adjusted for butterfat content and all figures are provisional. RPA relies on individual purchasers to provide the data, which is supplied ‘subject to confirmation’ and may be amended. Two purchasers failed to submit a return. Feeding the Future Innovation requirements for primary food production in the UK to 2030. This document is the result of UK primary producers coming together to identify their research and development priorities for the next 20 years. Launch of Survey Results - NSA Results from the Farming Against Wormer Resistance (FAWR) survey (created by Novartis Animal Health and supported by NSA and SCOPS) have given valuable insight into the reality of anthelmintic resistance for the UK sheep farming industry. Processing of meats and cardiovascular risk: time to focus on preservatives Dietary guidelines emphasize selecting lean (low-fat) meats to reduce saturated fat and cholesterol, but growing evidence suggests that health effects may relate to other ingredients, such as sodium, heme iron, or L-carnitine. Understanding how meats influence health, and on which nutrients this relationship depends, is essential to advise consumer choices, set guidelines, and inform food reformulations. A recent study published in BMC Medicine involving 448,568 participants in 10 European countries, provides important evidence in this regard. After multivariate adjustment, intake of unprocessed red meat was not significantly associated with total or cause-specific mortality; conversely, intake of processed meat was associated with a 30% higher rate of cardiovascular disease (CVD) (per 50g/day, relative risk 1.30, 95% confidence interval 1.17 to 1.45) and also higher cancer mortality. These findings are consistent with our previous meta-analysis, based on smaller studies, showing strong associations of processed meats, but not unprocessed meats, with CVD. Preservatives are the notable difference; the calculated blood-pressure effects of sodium differences (around 400% higher in processed meats) explain most of the observed higher risk. Although unprocessed red meats seem to be relatively neutral for CVD, healthier choices are available, including fish, nuts, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. Public-health guidance should prioritize avoidance of processed meats, including the low-fat deli meats currently marketed as healthy choices, and the food industry should substantially reduce sodium and other preservatives in processed meats.