1805 views
The market basically treading water with demand expected to increase next week in England with the returning holidaymakers, next week should show if increase demand will increase prices.
Continental prices have firmed slightly purely as a result of the devaluation of the pound linked to the problems in China, but they are optimistic for the period up to Christmas and possibly beyond.
Germany
Our first article shows the level of interest that the German government has in their industry, they were first to introduce the conventional cage ban, which hit their industry fairly hard, they are now about to introduce a ban on beak trimming and stated they did not wish their industry to be disadvantaged again by their push towards their ideas on higher welfare standards.
Their ideas to pay compensation to farmers signing up to no beak trimming contracts give some indication of their higher costs and possible increase in mortality and the push to lower stocking decides, compensation at 1.70 Euros = approximately £1.20 per hen, that is one carrot to dangle in front of a poultry farmer in this day and age and on the grounds of welfare slips through legislation as not a subsidy.
The USA has had one heck of a fright with AI and are crashing through programs to expand research and education, whereas in this country we appear to be dismantling with steady cut backs.
There list of prevention measures against disease is good, but we would have put Bio-Security training and recording of standards at the top of the list as the human connections are very high risk.
Feed, although we now have a ban on GM crops in Scotland, they seem to have forgotten that we are dependent on grain and ingredients from other parts of the world! And feed from England.
