Annual Industry Survey
The 2010 Annual Industry Survey Executive Summary is now available. The Survey covers industry topics including labour and training, quality assurance, animal welfare, biosecurity and environment. The Survey is important as it arms APL with a more accurate view of the state of the industry. This enables us to more effectively represent the industry to government and other stakeholders, provide strategic input into APL R&D programs, and improve APL’s training programs and service delivery to producers.
Download the Executive Summary here.
A couple of important things to note about the 2010 Annual Survey:
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This report is essentially a weighted report, meaning results are displayed as a percentage (%) of Australian production. Due to the demographic profile of the Australian pork industry i.e. a very large number of smaller producers producing a small amount of total Australian pork production, care needs to be taken with interpretation of the non-weighted responses as they do not necessarily reflect general industry practice. In this survey 20% of all respondents were either hobby farmers or people who produce for their own use
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The Survey was undertaken before the Shaping Our Future consultation had concluded and before the decision was made by the industry to pursue a voluntarily move to group housing.
Some key findings from the 2010 Annual Industry Survey include:
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98% of production was managed by producers with an awareness of the regulatory requirements for animal welfare as stated in the Model Code including:
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92% had or were undertaking competency training for their staff
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65% had or were providing increased space allowances for their pigs.
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It’s a qualified and competent industry that cares for its animals – on average 58% of Australian pork production was managed by on-farm staff with a ProHand qualification, 35% by staff with a Certificate II in Agriculture (Pig Production) and 30% by staff with a Certificate III in Agriculture (Pig Production)
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It’s an environmentally responsible industry with almost all (91%) of production on farms that have an Environmental Management Plan in place
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Biosecurity practices were top of mind: virtually all production had staff trained in reporting signs of disease (99%) and had regular contact with a vet (98%). A high proportion of production (84%) involved staff trained to recognise clinical signs of exotic disease while 80% was covered by an emergency disease response plan.
Members may obtain a copy of the full report through the APL member’s portal.