Scottish pig farmers are to be given free access to an on-farm production recording and benchmarking programme for the next three years.
Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), which oversees farm assurance schemes for Scottish pigs under the Specially Selected Pork brand, has signed a contract with farm management software company AgroSoft Ltd.
Under the deal, all Scottish pig farmers will be given access to AgroSoft’s specialist management software and the company will provide quarterly industry benchmarking data to QMS and all participating farmers.
Pig farmers will be able to use mobile phone apps to record breeding and feeding herd data, and the software can be used to show individual sow history, pig movements and everyday tasks across the herd.
QMS pig specialist Allan Ward said the software would help producers increase their sustainability and productivity through the use of weekly inputted data, and weekly and monthly herd reports.
“These reports show areas for improvement and management changes,” he added.
“The anonymous benchmarking element allows producers to see how well they are doing against other producers for all the main key performance indicators used within the industry.”
The software access will be funded by QMS, and in part by private economic development agency, Opportunity North East.