Vets, consultants and nutritionists announce a unique collaboration
(April 2004)

Garth Partnership, the Humberside-based leading specialist pig veterinary practice and Pork Chain Solutions, the progressive alliance of independent pig consultants, will be announcing a collaborative project in conjunction with Devenish Nutrition at the British Pig and Poultry Fair.

Neville Kingston explains that as part of their aim to provide a better overall service to their clients, Garth Partnership would concentrate on providing health advice and harness the expertise available on other disciplines within Pork Chain Solutions to assist clients with other production problems.

Nick White of PCS says, "We were delighted when Garth approached us with this collaboration proposal, and look forward to working more closely with them and their clients in the future. Since PCS was formed some two years ago we have seen the benefits of working together and sharing our complementary skills, and collaborating with others in the industry was the next logical step to take".

Guy Wade-West of the Garth Partnership points out that they had been looking for a method of standardising performance information from clients using a range of different recording systems, and asked PCS to develop a suitable monitoring scheme.

The result is FOCUS (Farm Output Coming Under Scrutiny), which is a simple monitoring scheme providing timely, vital information about health and management aspects of pig production, which will be launched at the British Pig and Poultry Fair.

FOCUS utilises basic weekly performance data from existing farm records, and is web-based with data entry undertaken either by the producer or an adviser. FOCUS will help pig producers, vets, feed companies and business advisers provide better advice and encourage more effective forward planning.

It provides a concise assessment of current key performance indicators and forecast output, and the accumulated information can be used in a 'WHAT IF?' facility to identify profit boosting opportunities.

Mick Evans of PCS says, "We have developed FOCUS in conjunction with Devenish Nutrition, the Belfast based agri-technology company, who were also seeking to develop a standardised performance monitoring system to enhance the level of service to their clients".

Richard Kennedy of Devenish Nutrition points out that "Maximising profitability for our clients has always been a priority for us. We feel the development of FOCUS provides a user friendly solution identifying key performance indicators in pig production which drive unit profitability."

FOCUS is being made available to clients of Garth Partnership and Devenish Nutrition, and will also be available through Pork Chain Solutions as part of an on-farm consultancy package of business and technical advice.