With the addition of qbox to Red Meat Industry Forum's (RMIF) benchmarking system and British Pig Executive's (BPEX) run British Pig Health Scheme (BPHS), producers can now access via the web all the tools they need to help create a successful business.

QBOX gives producers electronic kill sheet data directly from the abattoir allowing farmers to analyse product quality and identify areas where there is opportunity for improvement.

BPHS gives producers analysis of the health status of their carcases following slaughter and RMIF's benchmarking scheme allows farmers to compare their costs against other producers nationally and locally.

David Morgan, East Yorkshire pig producer, has been using qbox for about four months and has set up the system for his fieldsman, Eric Raine to use. Eric, who looks after the finishing pigs, is finding qbox very useful as it gives him accurate data on the number of pigs that are meeting the right specification on a daily basis.

This gives Eric the information he needs to make adjustments. For instance if the data indicates a number of pigs whose weights are too high they select the pigs earlier. Equally, if some are under 70 kilos they are held back.

With pig prices fluctuating on a weekly basis, it is hard to assess the impact on David's bottom line however, he is convinced it is improving the business and, in time, he will see the results.

The Red Meat Industry Forum was set up in 2001 by Defra, NFU, IGD and MLC with the aim of improving competitiveness and profitability in the livestock and red meat industry.

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