Figures at your fingertips

The ability to easily identify changes in weight and grade of pig carcases over any time period is one of the greatest advantages of the new Pig Grading Information System (PiGIS) according to pig producer Andrew McCrea.  PiGIS, which was officially launched in June, allows all producers to access their pig carcase information via the internet.  

Andrew operates a large birth to bacon pig enterprise with his father and brother near Cookstown and was one of the first pig producers to use PiGIS. He now regularly uses the program to check the quality of his slaughter pigs.  According to Andrew, it is very easy to use and he can easily retrieve information on his pigs.

Like many of the pig producers registered on PiGIS, Andrew uses the program to help make informed management decisions on his unit.  “We changed from using Landrace AI to Pietrain AI to help reduce the effects of wasting disease, but we were concerned about how this might affect the quality of our carcases.  PiGIS showed that this change had little effect on the way our pigs graded at the factory”.

Andrew’s pigs are paid on a grading system where bonus payments are made for pigs between specified weight and probe measurements.  PiGIS allows him to quantify the number of “bonus pigs” supplied over any time period chosen.  Analysis of weights also helps him maximise carcase weight while minimising over-weight pigs

Andrew believes that using PiGIS to compare the quality of the carcases he supplies with the best in the industry is extremely useful.  “For the first time we can benchmark our carcases with, for example, the top 10 percent or 20 percent of producers in Northern Ireland to see how we compare.  This allows us to see what the best producers can do and provides us with a target for the quality of our pigs”.  

Andrew is convinced that PiGIS is a practical and useful tool for all pig producers.

PiGIS is available to all pig producers in Northern Ireland who have access to the internet.  Resister here for PiGIS  or contact Mark Hawe or Liz Donnelly at Greenmount Campus.

Mark Hawe and Andrew McCrea discuss pig grading analysis provided by the new PiGIS system