By James Mottershead, broiler grower and chair, NFU poultry board
I’m writing this sat on the Eurostar on my way back from Brussels. I attended the COPA COGECA (umbrella organisation representing European farmers and agri-cooperatives) working party meeting on poultry meat and eggs which was very interesting. Many of the challenges we face as producers are also being faced by producers across Europe.
Charles Bourns, a previous chair of the COPA COGECA working party on poultry meat and eggs always told me the importance of these meetings and until you attend you don’t realise how valuable being involved in such conversations can be. It’s good to understand what our European neighbours are doing or thinking on key issues and identify opportunities for collaboration as sometimes multiple voices are stronger than one.
The meeting started with a set of reports from each member state on their current market conditions. Most reports seemed positive in terms of market conditions with Spain expecting to see growth and Finland reporting new export opportunities.
There was a good discussion on avian influenza. We discussed the devastating impacts on producers when this awful disease strikes and talked about vaccination as a solution. France is now in their third year of vaccination. I was interested to learn about the government’s funding which covered 85% of the costs in the first year and 70% in the second year with an expectation that this may be reduced again in subsequent years. I’ll be interested to see if this impacts uptake of the vaccine over time.
With a large laying hen farm being confirmed positive for HPAI in Spain recently and rumours of a very large laying hen unit in the USA also being affected, I think we’ll start to see the speeding up of talks on global vaccination.
As we head into the winter the usual messaging around biosecurity will be ramped up. My worry is that some bird keepers become oblivious to the risk because it seems a constant threat. I know that any farmer that has experienced the horror of losing their flock would encourage us all to do everything in our power to keep it out and we must do so.
On to a more positive note and I’m about to attend the Farmers Weekly awards. I wish the best of luck to all the finalists and I don’t envy the judges having to choose an overall winner. Whilst we often fall into the trap of focussing on all the challenges and looking for solutions to offer, it is so important to celebrate all the great things poultry farmers are doing. I know the struggles we face but we must remember to acknowledge that we are producing quality products for the nation to enjoy and for that I congratulate you all.