Pork CRC Publishes Annual Report

AUSTRALIA - Pork CRC has published its Annual Report 08/09.

The Mission Statement of statement of Australia's Pork Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) reads: 'The Pork Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) aims to enhance the efficiency and cost competitiveness of the Australian pork industry, while maintaining environmentally sustainable agricultural practice allowing the efficient production of innovative pork products from enhanced grain resources and with improved feed conversion efficiency.

As well as details of the organisation and financial statements, the Annual Report includes summaries of the many research projects that have been completed this year, as well as information on those in progress.

Pork CRC Chairman, Dr John Keniry, commented: "In Program 1, we have several grain cultivars (triticale, barley and peas) being multiplied/ bulked-up for full-scale feeding trials and commercial production in 2010. Research continues to find additional cultivars with particular nutritional value for pigs. Also in Program 1, the use of NIR measurements to evaluate the real nutritional value of grains is expanding beyond research personnel into the grain trading, feed milling and pig production sectors.

"In Program 2, we have achieved some outstanding results in research and adoption. The development of a world first nasal vaccine (APP-Alive) for APP and the development of improved methods for using pST and Ractopamine (Paylean), are two examples of innovative research and rapid adoption by industry. There is more very prospective research underway, which is described later within the report.

"In Program 3, which got off to a slow start, we are now making steady progress in several projects aimed at developing pork with enhanced nutritional attributes, which we believe will offer increased consumer appeal and potential to increase consumption.

"While the research results have been very pleasing, it is even more rewarding to see a real appetite developing throughout the industry for the results of our research and for adopting it into commercial production systems. This has been driven not just by the research results themselves, but by a pro-active program of seminars and refresher courses for industry practitioners, at which Pork CRC research results are delivered and also presentations from international experts on various aspects of pig research and production. As an example, some 73 papers will be presented by Pork CRC researchers at the forthcoming Australasian Pig Science Association (APSA) conference in November 2009.

"The education programme (Program 4) continues to exceed our obligations under the Commonwealth Agreement in terms of numbers of graduate and post-graduate students. These students are closely integrated into the industry, and upon completion of their training, will create an enhanced human resource to continue the industry’s forward momentum."