Dr Ian Parish Leadership Development Award: Inaugural recipient report
Angus Wood, Operations Manager at Mt Boothby Pastoral at Tintinara SA was awarded the inaugural Dr. Ian Parish Leadership Development Award, sponsored by Auspork Limited this year. Angus participated in the Marcus Oldham Rural Leadership Program, supported by NAB Agribusiness (participants pictured).
“It was great honour to be the inaugural recipient of the Dr. Ian Parish Leadership Award” Angus said and went on to say “that we are so proud that such an important legacy is here in Ian Parish’s name. Ian was a tremendous mentor and friend to Mt Boothby and specifically to Andrew Johnson our Director, and it is truly fitting that such a leadership program for the development of others, is in Ian’s honour. Congratulations Auspork”.
“The week long course was an amazing opportunity to improve my existing skills and learn new ones” Angus explained. “The course was very stimulating and challenging. It was fantastic to meet others from all over Australia and learning from them about other Agricultural industries”.
Angus highly recommends anyone who is developing their leadership roles within their pork farming business and/or the community to apply.
Expressions of Interest will be called from mid-January for two recipients for the May and August programs at Marcus Oldham.
New Guidelines Assist Schools in Sourcing Pigs
As further assistance to individual schools and the Department of Education SA, Pork SA through consultation with the suppliers of pigs into the Pigs in Schools program, has developed a new set of Guidelines aimed at harmonising these supply arrangements.
The purpose of the Guidelines is to promote best practice management between when pigs leave their farm of origin to when they are finally disposed of by schools.
Read the full article from the Stock Journal 12/12/2024 here: New Guidelines Assist Schools in Sourcing Pigs
Exposing people to pigs
Much has been made by many Industries over the past 15 years or more of the ‘agricultural knowledge gap’ that exists between urban and rural communities.
Marketers across many commodities often blame a lack of contact between city consumers and daily farm practices on their lack of confidence in committing to their purchase of certain food types.
Nationally, the pork Industry has gone some way in closing this gap through the website posting of a series of pig production case studies by Australian Pork Limited (APL). A virtual piggery tour posting also helps to demonstrate routine pig production practices used within Industry, having to step around the present day restrictions often placed on physical farm visits.
In South Australia, Pork SA is active in educating secondary school students with its support of the Pigs in Schools program, the Pig Club at Adelaide University and Pigs and People sessions delivered during the annual Royal Adelaide Show.
Amongst the myriad of other competing (and free) attractions on offer at the Show, a visit to the pig pavilion by non-farming Show-goers is probably their only opportunity to come close to seeing, hearing and smelling a live pig!
The Pigs and People program has been delivered within sow and litter pens during Show week for over 20 years. More recently sponsored by Pork SA using levy payer fund, the program is only made possible by the exhibition of sows with their litters by SA breeders.
The program’s lead Graeme Pope provides a verbal ‘step-by-step’ description of pig biology starting from the weaning of each sow’s last litter up to presentation of their current 1-3 week old litters.
Describing the weaning process, heat checks and mating, establishment and confirmation of pregnancy, sow management and litter growth through gestation, the farrowing process, teat order, piglet fostering, lactation and piglet care all get coverage, often with comparisons made between pigs and other farm animals more commonly encountered by city dwellers (sheep, cattle, horses).
So how effective is this program at attracting the non-farming public towards understanding more about pigs and the pork Industry?
The Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of SA surveyed over 1,000 Show-goers following the 2024 Show to determine their visitations to some identified Agricultural Areas and Favourite Competitions.
Of the 20 different competitions identified, pig judging was ranked 9th overall, with 17% of survey respondents confirming they had attended that competition, equal to dairy cattle judging but more popular than all other livestock competitions, except horses-in-action (show jumping).
Of the 12 identified agricultural area visitations, Pigs and People was ranked 6th overall with 40% of respondents attending, which was above beef cattle, sheep, exhibition dairy, horses in-stables and exhibition milking.
These survey results confirm the popularity of pigs, and the attraction of the (mainly) non-farming public to understand more about them, reinforcing the value of Pork SA’s investment in the Pigs and People program.
Read the article in Stock Journal 12/12/2024: Exposing People to Pigs
Dr. Ian Parish Leadership Development Award recipient: Angus Wood
Angus Wood, Operations Manager at Mt Boothby Pastoral at Tintinara SA, has been granted the inaugural Dr. Ian Parish Leadership Development Award, sponsored by Auspork Limited.
The Award recognises Dr. Parish’s work and contributions made for the producers of Victoria and South Australia for over 50 years – and for his leadership role within the wider Pork Industry community, bringing together like-minded producers and business’s to enhance our industry via the development of various piggery operations, Abattoirs, Feed Mills, plus Auspork Limited, a producer led marketing group.
Angus will participate in the Marcus Oldham Rural Leadership Program, supported by NAB Agribusiness. This is an intensive five-day “live-in” workshop conducted on the College campus at Geelong. The program, which commenced in 1992, is recognised as one of the longest running rural leadership programs in the nation.
Two awards for the leadership program in May and August will be offered again for 2025. Applications will be called for commencing in January 2025.
SA 2023 Biosecurity preparedness snapshot
A survey of biosecurity preparedness of farms supplying pigs to South Australian abattoirs was co-funded by Pork SA and the Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA).
The survey assessed the biosecurity practices of 69 breeder, progeny, and farrow-to-finish sites from 3 jurisdictions. Participation represented 23% of the national sow herd (66,614 sows), 76% of the SA sow herd (34,514 sows) and 79% of SA[1]produced pigs (690,280 progenies). The survey identified biosecurity practices the pig industry has in place, and opportunities to improve biosecurity to be better prepared for an Emergency Animal Disease.