PIG industry stalwarts Christine Sapwell and Peter Brechin have been recognised for their contribution to the sector with PorkSA life membership.
They were honoured during the SA Pig Industry Day dinner at Tanunda late last month.
Each has contributed to the industry’s growth and development in the past 45 years through involvement in numerous boards, committees and industry activities related to the political, marketing and research needs of producers, while still operating their own successful piggeries.
Ms Sapwell established Norsap stud at Angle Vale in the 1960s, supplying purebred breeding stock to commercial farms across SA and interstate.
With the piggery located less than one hour’s travel from the Northfield Pig Research Unit, Department of Agriculture researchers often involved her herd in its early pig health and nutrition studies.
Ms Sapwell’s entry into ‘pig politics’ began in 1969 when the late Lance Dawkins encouraged her to join the Gawler branch of the United Farmers & Stockowner’s pig section (later the SA Farmers’ Federation), which lead to a position within the SAFF commercial pig section.
Prior to the formation of Australian Pork Limited in 2000, Ms Sapwell was a board member of the Australian Pork Corporation for eight years, responsible for developing marketing strategies aimed at promoting domestic pork consumption.
For a short time she even owned her own butcher shop, specialising in pork products.
Between 1986 and 2002, she was a board member of SABOR, and oversaw the transition of the industry-owned facility from its original charter as a Central Boar Testing Station to a fully-privatised 300-plus boar artificial breeding centre.
Her other industry contributions have included membership of the SA Swine Compensation Fund advisory committee, the SA Pig Industry Advisory Board, the National Pig Fair Committee – when the fair was held in Adelaide during the 1990s – several SA Pig and Poultry Fair organising committees, APL’s specialist interest groups and a two-year stint on the PorkSA Board.
While her own piggery has since closed, Ms Sapwell maintains her industry involvement through managing the financials of the Ronald J Lienert Memorial Scholarship and as a travel consultant for many SA pig producers looking for an off-farm holiday.
Mr Brechin would be well-known to most SA pig producers as the ‘voice of the market’, having reported Gepps Cross and Dublin weekly saleyard pig prices on the ABC’s Country Hour for more than 40 years.
In the early days of pig research at Northfield, Mr Brechin was able to use his position within the ABC to promote the industry and ‘get the stories told’ on statewide radio.
He was chair of the Pork Council of Australia at a time when negotiations about the importation of Canadian pork were top of mind for industry and government.
He was able to use his considerable media networks and expertise to ensure producers’ concerns were well communicated under his chairmanship.
Like Ms Sapwell, Mr Brechin has committed countless years to membership of most SA-based pig industry committees.
He remains a board member of Roseworthy Piggery – the University of Adelaide’s 300-plus on-campus piggery – and is a member of the industry sub-committee responsible for management of the Ronald J Lienert Memorial Scholarship.
