Ag News: Big Pigs in China and Bitter Pit Sensors
**In a desperate move to make up for losses from African Swine Fever, some Chinese pig farmers are raising pigs as big as polar bears.
According to agweb.com, some of these giant pigs are crossing the scale around 1,100 pounds and can sell for nearly $1,400, more than three times the average monthly disposable income in the area.
And, it’s not just the smaller farmers chasing this trend.
Several major protein producers are increasing the average weight of their pigs by 14%.
**Philadelphia-based AgroFresh Solutions’ FreshCloud Predictive Screening system has added capabilities to help Honeycrisp apple growers.
AgroFresh introduced soft scald screening last year for Honeycrisp, and this year has added bitter pit screening.
FreshCloud’s Brittany Buchanan tells thepacker.com, the tools can be used by growers to predict the risk of soft scald and bitter pit development on Honeycrisps in storage by analyzing unique biomarkers.
Some growers lose an average of 15–25% of the crop to bitter pit, double that in extreme cases.
**The text of the U.S.-Japan tariff agreement signed last week confirms the agreement will provide imported U.S. wheat the same preferential advantage now given to Canadian and Australian wheat under the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership.
U.S. Wheat Associates President Vince Peterson tells agrimarketing.com, "The text confirms the agreement will put U.S. wheat back on equal footing with wheat from Canada and Australia when implemented."
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