Pig grading information system (PiGIS)

Key features

One of the key features of PiGIS is that kill weight, grade and condemnation data are directly uploaded from a pig processing plant to a central benchmarking database. This information can be accessed in "real time" by registered producers from their home computer via the internet. PiGIS has been developed by a specialist AFBI team and incorporates a back-end SQL Server database and Microsoft .NET web technology.

Two versions of PiGIS exist allowing:

• Producers to compare (benchmark) the quality of their pig production against the "best" producers and thus identify targets for improvement 
  Access the interactive PiGIS Online demo
• Processors to improve their competitiveness by enabling them to identify those producers who best meet the requirements of their retail customers
  View a demonstration video of the PiGIS Windows Application 

Key Features of PiGIS

• Automatic upload of data from processing plants to online database
• Real-time analysis of individual producer data
• Ranks producers in term of quality
• Comparisons of performance over time
• Comparison against "rest or best" producers
• Statistical analysis highlights areas for improvement
• Easy to use and flexible with self-explanatory analysis and reports

The experience gained in developing PiGIS shows that the principles and techniques involved could be extended both to other pig industries and to other species particularly sheep and beef cattle where work is already underway.