National Pig Association THE VOICE OF THE UK PIG INDUSTRY NPA is active on members' behalf in Brussels & White-hall, and with pro-cessors, supermarkets & caterers – fighting for the growth and pros-perity of the UK pig industry.

Well the British Pig and Poultry Fair is aiming to go one better and field a whole team of them at next year’s event, which is on Wednesday and Thursday, May 12 and 13 at Stoneleigh Park.

The agony aunts – or mentors as they will be called – will be on hand to talk to producers, in groups and individually, about current challenges in the industry.

But they will be doing more than lending a sympathetic ear. Their brief – albeit a difficult one – will be to help producers map out their future in workable stages, with particular reference to new green rules due to take effect over the next few years.

This new service will form the core of the Pig Fair’s Central Display which will be prominently sited, as before, in Hall Two (the new one).

Sponsored by the Royal Agricultural Society of England and others (details will follow later), it will replace the more formal programme of seminars held in previous years, thus demonstrating the way that the Pig Fair is adapting to meeting the needs of an industry in the throes of restructuring.

The theme of the Central Display will be “An action plan for survival“ and the key objective will be to map out ways that producers can avoid the trauma of complying with new rules and regulations.

The approach taken by mentors will be to help pig farmers of all sizes to first identify what needs to be done to comply with new rules and regulations, and then to adopt a step-by-step approach.

Producers will be welcome on the Central Display area at any time over the two days of the Pig Fair, to sit in on any of the surgeries, or just to chat with colleagues and mentors.

The layout and atmosphere will be such that they can wander in and out of the surgeries at will. There will also be a help desk, and quiet corners to sit down for a private chat.

The team of mentors and the subjects they will speak and advise on will be announced nearer the date of the event, but the aim will be to embrace all key areas of production including financial management, nutrition, housing and specific green issues such as emissions and waste disposal.

The British Pig and Poultry Fair is organised and presented by the Royal Agricultural Society of England in association with Pig World and Poultry World.

Source: National Pig Association, Digby Scott - 17th October 2003