all about aussie pig farmers - australian...

Issue 12 Spring 2017

AUSTRALIAN PORK LIMITED 1 | www.australianpork.com.au | [email protected] | Toll Free 1800 789 099

WA piggery produces Australia’s

best pork steak

All about Aussie pig farmers

Your step-by-step PigPass guide

AUSTRALIAN PORK LIMITED 2 | www.australianpork.com.au | [email protected] | Toll Free 1800 789 099 3AUSTRALIAN PORK LIMITED | www.australianpork.com.au | [email protected] | Toll Free 1800 789 099

Issue 12 Spring 2017Pigs N' Mud Pigs N' MudSpring 2017 Issue 12

In this Issue

About UsKnow your APL Staff

Australian Pork Limited (APL) is a unique rural industry service body for the Australian pork in-dustry. It is a producer-owned company delivering integrated services that enhance the viability of Australia’s pig producers. The organisation aims to enhance opportunities for the sustainable growth of the Australian pork industry by delivering inte-grated marketing, innovation and policy services along the pork industry supply chain. APL pursues opportunities for the industry at both the domestic and international level.

3 All about the revamped Aussie Pig Farmers website

4 Your how-to guide on using PigPass

6 The search is over: Shark Lake Piggery takes out top honours in competition

7 Students inspired to pursue a career in the pork industry

8 Perfect for Spring: pork parmigiana steak with chips and salad

Welcome to the Spring edition of Pigs N’ Mud, Australian Pork Limited’s (APL) newsletter for the small producer.

Steve MillerAPIQ® Operations Manager

Share your pig farming stories with us by contacting APL’s Membership and Communication Services Executive, Elzet Vermeulen on 02 6270 8814 or at [email protected]

For information about APL Membership, call Rachel Blake on 02 6270 8807 or visit the APL website at www.australianpork.com.au/members.

New website all about Aussie pig farmersThere are pig farmers all around Australia, ranging in a variety of sizes, systems and processes. What- ever your set up is, the myths and misunderstanding surrounding the pork industry can hurt your relationships with the Australian community, your customers, and the support for future pig farming in Australia.

It is important that Australian pig farmers join the conversation around what goes on in the pig industry. As such, in July 2017, we launched the revised Aussie Pig Farmers website.

The new website shows that Aus-tralian pig producers aren’t trying to hide anything. It is a place where we can point anyone to who wants to know how our industry works.

Along with a fresh, new look and easier navigation, there is up to date information, images and re-sources.

On the website you can learn about each of the life stages of pigs, the different farming and housing systems, the variety of people working in our industry, as well as the slaughtering and processing

systems in place. It shows how and why things are done on Aussie farms, providing answers about how pork goes from farms to plates.

It is focused on transparency and building positive relationships with the Australian community. We are hoping a more honest and balanced resource will inform the communi-ty and encourage them to support our Aussie pig farmers, big or small, free range or indoor.

Visit the new website at www.aussiepigfarmers.com.au.

Masterchef’s love of pork continuesThe calibre of food on this year’s MasterChef reached new highs, but so too did pork’s prevalence.

In particular, one contestant im-pressed judges time and again with delicious and beautiful dishes show-casing the versatile protein.

Sydney risk analyst, Sarah Tiong, made the top six before being

sent home, and in her time on the show, loudly and proudly

declared her love of pork and serving it blushing pink.

Australian Pork Lim-ited jumped at the

opportunity to partner with the

pork enthusi-ast and has

been working with Sarah to develop a number of recipes and videos. Many of these are now available on pork.com.au. The recipes showcase pork’s versatility, with dishes ranging from crumbed pork steaks with Pico De Gallo salsa to pork meat-balls and pearl barley soup, as well as pork and chive dumplings, sticky pork belly and Tom Saap.

The partnership has also included a chance for Sarah to visit pig farms to get a deeper understanding of the in-dustry. In July she travelled to West-ern Australia to meet award-winning producers from this year’s Steak Your Claim competition, Stephen and Deb Hoffrichter. Shark Lake Piggery, Esperance, took top hon-ours in the competition, while Black Label Berkshires, Beverley, placed third, and both gave Sarah tours of their operations, before allowing her to film more recipe videos on site. The tour concluded with Sarah vis-iting Linley Valley, which processed four of the top five entrants in the competition.

Sarah is continuing to develop her business plans, but pork is set to play a key role in her future.

Pork enthusiast, Sarah Tiong, film-ing recipe videos.

I work in the Canberra office of APL and I love working for the pig farmers of Australia. My family and I emigrated to Australia back in July 1986. To our amazement Canberra had just been blanketed by a fresh layer of snow, SNOW! My aunty proclaimed “wel-come to sunny Canberra!” In my eight years with APL I’ve worked in Marketing, Policy and currently in the Research and Innovation division as the APIQ® Operations Manager. In my role it is my job to ensure that the Australian pork industry’s repu-tation is responsible and sustainable and that the industry is protected and enhanced. Currently 90% of all Austra-lian sows are APIQ® certified which is fantastic as it shows the industry is committed to excellence. The bit I like most about my job is meeting people, sharing knowledge and making connec-tions. I can honestly say that I’ve never felt as an outsider in this industry despite my automotive background. If you’d like to hear more about the APIQ® system, need some industry information or would like to chat give me a call on 02 6270 8808.



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Children visiting the stand to look at the pigs.

Shark Lake Piggery produces Australia’s best pork

Humans in mud

Inspiring students to pursue careers in the Australian pork industry

Shark Lake Piggery’s pork has been named Australia’s best, after taking out top honours in the second Steak Your Claim competition.

The Australian Pork Limited compe-tition attracted entries from across the country, but it was the pork from Esperance in Western Austra-lia that impressed judges in both its raw and cooked forms.

General Manager of Marketing, Peter Haydon, said all APL members were invited to enter the competi-tion and have their pork assessed by the highly qualified chef judging pan-el. “We know our farmers produce a high quality product, but we were looking for something a bit special, a product that they believed would outperform their peers,” he said.

“A panel of three judges had the tough job of assessing the steak entries, looking for the best over-all pork and noting any distinctive characteristics.”

Pork loin steaks were judged for cri-teria including colour, visual appeal and marbling of the raw product, plus the aroma, flavour, tenderness, juiciness and texture of the cooked.

Stephen Hoffrichter from the fam-ily-run Shark Lake Piggery entered the steaks from his Landrace pigs which had been fed lupins and bar-ley. Judges commended the product as having excellent marbling, being bright and beautiful when raw and having a great flavour profile, excel-lent juiciness and being an al-dente style pork. “We have worked hard on quality improvement, invested more than $2 million dollars in the last few years and worked closely

with our stock providers,” Mr Hof-frichter said.

A relatively new operation, Black Label Berkshires (The Butcher’s Block), Corrigin, WA, took home third place. Linton and Kerry Batt entered a Large White Berkshire cross fed wheat, lupins and meat-meal. The Batts have been on their current property for just 18 months and have 80–85 Berkshire sows grown out on straw, with big plans for their operation.

The Steak Your Claim competition attracted significant prize money for the first three places, and also marketing opportunities for their products. The 2018 competition will be held next March.

RESULTS:

1 Shark Lake Piggery, Espe-rance, WA: Landrace, fed lupins and barley

2 Byron Bay Pork, Bangalow, NSW: Berkshire x, fed mixed grain

3 Black Label Berkshires (The Butcher’s Block), Corrigin, WA: Large White x Berk-shire, fed wheat, lupins and meatmeal.

‘‘ It’s really great to

have our efforts rewarded

in this way.

‘‘The Hoffrichters’ piggery was estab-lished in 1983 and now has 600 Land-race and Large White sows, with the property also running Angus cattle, Dorper sheep and chickens. The fo-cus is on quality, with Stephen’s wife, Deborah, responsible for breeding selection. Their pigs are processed through Linley Valley, with females exported to Singapore.

A Berkshire cross fed a mixed grain diet won second place for John Singh, Byron Bay Pork, Bangalow, NSW. Byron Bay Pork sells premium pork to butchers and wholesalers across Australia. The Singh family have been farmers for many years, but began using Berkshire pigs in 2000. Byron Bay Pork now uses an F1 (Landrace and Large White cross), crossed with Berkshire to make a good pork with Berkshire traits that’s more affordable. At present they have around 250 sows, which are fed a diet that is a mix of grains and macadamia meal.

Shark Lake Piggery’s Stephen and Deb Hoffrichter, and MasterChef 2017 contestant, Sarah Tiong, during a visit to their Esperance piggery at the end of July.

APIQ® Systems Manager Steve Miller and R&I Technology Trans-fer and Adoption Coordinator, Lechelle van Breda recently attended the Primex Field days in Casino NSW. Over the three day event, APL shared a stand with Lucy Amey and Fiona Borello from the Northern Co-operative Meat Company (NCMC) as well as Jayce Morgan from the NSW DPI, with the intention of meeting with small producers, raising the awareness of PigPass, APIQ®, bi-osecurity and also providing valu-able guidance to producers with a focus on NSW planning rules. The damp weather ensured that the number of feet through the gates was less than organisers expected, but with the assistance of John Singh (Byron Bay Pork) and his two pigs, the APL stand was visited by just about everyone there.

APL was also supported by Ballina and Goonelabah Country Meats (BGCM) who provided us with gift vouchers which we raffled off every day. Ballina and Goonelebah Coun-try Meats grabbed second place (NSW) for their full rasher bacon entry in this year’s APL Australian Bacon Awards.

The event was a great success. We met and spoke with over 150 attendees, gave out hundreds of squishy pigs to the kids that stopped by to look at the piggies, and raised awareness of Austra-lian pork, pig producers and the challenges facing the industry today.

APL has been engaging with under- graduate students from multiple Australian universities at numerous

careers fairs over the last few months to encourage students to follow a career path in the Austra-lian pig industry.

Students gathered at the Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga campus in July 2017 to attend a careers fair run in conjunction with the Intercollegiate Meat Judging Association (ICMJ) competition. ICMJ is a not-for-profit association which aims to provide an opportu-nity for students to learn about the Australian meat industry. APL pro-vided sponsorship for two teams of students, Tocal College and Charles Sturt University, to participate in the ICMJ competition and has

received many positive reviews. APL also attended AgVision Sydney, which was held at Sydney Showground on 27 July 2017, to encourage secondary school stu-dents to pursue a career in the pork industry.

It was a huge success due to the positive engagement with stu-dents. At the AgVision agricul-ture show, students heard from pig producer, Andree Rowntree and a young pig science research-er, APL PhD student Alicia Steel and Lechelle van Breda from APL to gain a better understanding of where a career in the pig indus-try can take them.

AUSTRALIAN PORK LIMITED 8 | www.australianpork.com.au | [email protected] | Toll Free 1800 789 099

Issue 12 Spring 2017Pigs N' Mud

Pork parmigiana steak with chips and salad

Cooking time:

20minutes

Serves:

4Prep

aration time:5

minutes

Ingredients:4 lean pork loin steaks1 tablespoon oilSalt and pepper to taste¾ cup roasted tomato sauce1 mozzarella cheese ball, sliced¼ cup parsley, finely chopped

1 Brush the pork leg steak with a little oil and season with salt and pepper.

2 Preheat the griddle pan for 1–2 minutes over a medium heat.

3 Place the pork steaks in the griddle pan and cook for 6 minutes, turn the steaks and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove steaks from the pan and rest in a warm place for 2 minutes.

4 Place steaks on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Spoon the roasted tomato sauce over the pork steaks and top with sliced mozzarella cheese.

5 Place the prepared steaks under the preheated grill and cook until cheese is bubbling and golden brown.

6 Remove steaks from the baking tray and place onto a serving platter with crispy fried potato chips and salad.

To serve:Crispy fried potato chipsSalad

Method:

Ingredients:1 kg ripe tomatoes, halved2 tablespoons olive oil2 cloves garlic, finely slicedSalt and freshly ground black pepper½ cup of red wine

Preheat oven to 160 °C. Toss tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, salt

Method:

and pepper together in a shallow baking dish. Place baking dish in the oven and roast tomatoes for 1 hour. Remove from oven and place in a saucepan with red wine and simmer, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and leave to cool for 15 minutes. Store in an airtight container in the fridge and use as required.

Roasted tomato sauce

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