Farmscape for November 9, 2015

Research being conducted through a national partnership involving the pork industry, government and researchers is focusing on ensuring consumers will continue to choose pork.
Swine Innovation Porc, a national organization created to facilitate research on behalf of Canada's pork industry has released its 2014 2015 annual report.
The work is funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in partnership with the pork industry.
Swine Innovation Porc chair Stewart Cressman notes the main focus is to reduce production and feed costs, improve product attributes and prices and enhance the adaptability and sustainability of the sector.

Clip-Stewart Cressman-Swine Innovation Porc:
Our base funding comes from producers who, a research levy is collected on every individual hog that is marketed, so there is the realization that certainly benefits have to flow to the sector that currently is paying a good portion of the costs but there are other partners.
The nutrition work, we would argue that it benefits the producer and there's some best management practices looking at a more robust healthy pig in the  nursery that requires less or no intervention with antibiotics.
As well there's work that's being done with the processors, so looking at technologies that they can use in their plants to look at pork quality and attributes and then passing that on to further processors and retailers trying to better identify the attributes that they would like to have in their product that they put in the meat case and ultimately supply to the consumers.

Cressman stresses the consumer has choices and doesn't have to buy pork so we have to keep the end view in sight, how can we improve the quality, the taste experience and the healthfulness of the product to maintain repeat customers at a competitive price point.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork