Industry News

In December 2024, Pig Club sponsored an invaluable placement opportunity for six DVM students to undertake one week of pig specific veterinary placement in Victoria with Dr Jonathan Van Dissel from ProSwine, Apiam. The week consisted of shadowing the veterinarian as he consulted three different outdoor pig farms. Overwhelmingly, all students had an excellent week, where they gained valuable insights and practical skills, which they can apply in their future careers as Mixed Animal veterinarians or pig specific veterinarians.

From left to right: Dr Jonathan Van Dissel, and Pig Club veterinary students Emily Edwards, Bonnie Homer, Ruth Khaw, Lili Du, Gypsy Entriken, and Jackson Judd.

Testimonials from Pig Club students: 

The chance to attend this pig placement should not be taken lightly! A good combination of a fun trip with an extremely educational one, this pig placement is a solid choice for anyone going into mixed practice or intensive farming, with a focus on pigs. The chance to visit multiple outdoor pig farms, learning about the many aspects of running a successful outdoor pig farm, and the opportunity to refine your pig knowledge and practical skills proves how invaluable this placement is. I would highly recommend this placement to anyone considering mixed or large animal practice, as well as those interested solely in pigs. – Jackson Judd

After visiting three of Pastoral Pork’s outdoor farms, I gained valuable insight into the challenges and benefits of free-range pork. Engaging with the farm managers and staff was invaluable, and their willingness to student participation made the week enjoyable and productive. We worked alongside Dr. Jono whose vast knowledge and skills were shared in a supportive and relaxed environment has certainly encouraged my interest in the pig industry and has opened yet another door to a potential career path… this experience [was] unlike any other placement I’ve attended. – Lili Du

The hands-on practical experiences were particularly valuable, with the opportunity to perform numerous post-mortems (and sample collection) of different aged pigs, blood sampling in growers, euthanasia techniques, and saliva sample collection. I highly recommend this placement opportunity to future veterinary students who are interested in the pig industry (or mixed practise) and want to gain more knowledge and experience with pigs! – Bonnie Homer

This placement was eye-opening as it allowed all of us to have the opportunity to do a lot more practical work with pigs. … Everything that was presented was realistic and practical too. – Ruth Khaw

I had a great week and came away with many pig specific differentials and skills. I really appreciated the experience on outdoor farm systems, it was satisfying to see such refinement in the industry and the welfare of the pigs was evident. Throughout the week we had exposure to at least 8x post mortems and 3x euthanasia’s. I felt that my post-mortem confidence improved as did my knowledge of ‘normal’ vs ‘abnormal’ findings. Again, conducting post-mortems is a valuable skill that I can apply to pigs as well as other production animals.- Gypsy Entriken

Students engaging in consultation with free range pig farm manager.

Molly Dunstan, Veterinarian at Sunpork Farms was awarded the second Dr. Ian Parish Leadership Development Award, sponsored by Auspork Limited this year.  Molly participated in the Marcus Oldham Rural Leadership Program, supported by NAB Agribusiness (participants pictured).

“A very big thank you to Pork SA and Auspork for this great opportunity through the Dr Ian Parish Award. I can’t say how much I enjoyed the course, including the challenge to get out of my comfort zone and learn from other people in the ag industry. The sessions were based around emotional intelligence, public speaking, mental health, pillars of leadership and communications, with some great key-note speakers.”

“My key takeaways were that leadership is everyone’s business & not just reserved for those in specific leadership roles, the importance of early collaboration, developing my personal toolkit to help myself and others in tough times, and overall improving my self-awareness. The opportunity to network with others in agriculture and learn from their experiences has been a privilege to be part of.”

“I feel like the course has come at a perfect time for me for reflection of where I have come, enabled forward planning / thinking of where I would like to go within the pork industry and how to help bring out the best in myself and the teams that I work with.”

Molly highly recommends anyone who is developing their leadership roles within their pork farming business and/or the community to apply.

The APIQ® Option C VEBS-ASF (Voluntary Enhanced Biosecurity Standards – African swine fever) were introduced into APIQ® in 2022 as an optional verification module.

The VEBS in combination with APIQ® core standards represent the minimum biosecurity standard approved by regulators to support risk assessments for movement of live pigs and semen (from certified boar studs) during an ASF outbreak.

The project aims to build VEBS Facilitator capability and capacity to support production sites becoming VEBS Accredited.

Information on the roll out in SA may be found here: VEBS Facilitator Participant Recruitment Information_SA_Qld V1.

Angus Wood, Operations Manager at Mt Boothby Pastoral at Tintinara SA was awarded the inaugural Dr. Ian Parish Leadership Development Award, sponsored by Auspork Limited this year.  Angus participated in the Marcus Oldham Rural Leadership Program, supported by NAB Agribusiness (participants pictured).

“It was great honour to be the inaugural recipient of the Dr. Ian Parish Leadership Award” Angus said and went on to say “that we are so proud that such an important legacy is here in Ian Parish’s name. Ian was a tremendous mentor and friend to Mt Boothby and specifically to Andrew Johnson our Director, and it is truly fitting that such a leadership program for the development of others, is in Ian’s honour. Congratulations Auspork”.

“The week long course was an amazing opportunity to improve my existing skills and learn new ones” Angus explained. “The course was very stimulating and challenging. It was fantastic to meet others from all over Australia and learning from them about other Agricultural industries”.

Angus highly recommends anyone who is developing their leadership roles within their pork farming business and/or the community to apply.

Expressions of Interest will be called from mid-January for two recipients for the May and August programs at Marcus Oldham.

As further assistance to individual schools and the Department of Education SA, Pork SA through consultation with the suppliers of pigs into the Pigs in Schools program, has developed a new set of Guidelines aimed at harmonising these supply arrangements.

The purpose of the Guidelines is to promote best practice management between when pigs leave their farm of origin to when they are finally disposed of by schools.

Read the full article from the Stock Journal 12/12/2024 here: New Guidelines Assist Schools in Sourcing Pigs