An assessment of native pig breeds and the value added products they are capable of yielding will be featured as one of 25 scholar presentations, scheduled for inclusion in this year’s Nuffield Farming Scholarships annual conference.
Set to be held at Gosforth Park Hotel, Newcastle, from November 23-25, the event’s key focus is on scholars’ reports from their 18 months of study, with this year’s event including a presentation by Welsh pig producer and Nuffield scholar, Illtud Dunsford (pictured above).
Having spent more than four years researching whole-supply chain pork production around the world, partly through his Nuffield scholarship and partly through support from other organisations, Mr Dunsford’s conference report will be based on extensive global study.
“I attended a professional summer school at the Meat Laboratory, Iowa State University, USA, and spent six weeks travelling the Pacific Northwest of North America, thanks to a Hybu Cig Cymru Livestock Scholarship,” he reports on the Nuffield scholarship website.
“Further research trips have included visits to Spain, France, Germany and Italy and a study tour to Denmark to review the pork industry.
“Lessons learnt in Denmark contributed to the conversion of a former calving shed into a fattening unit in 2014, which hopefully will provide the basis for a larger pig unit in due course.”
Looking ahead to this year’s conference, Nuffield director, Mike Vacher, commented: “All Scholars travel internationally for at least eight weeks. If you multiply that time by the 25 scholars presenting at this year’s event, we’ll therefore be sharing in at least 200 weeks of global learning over the two days.”