The Pig Grading Information System (PiGIS) enables producers and processors to assess and benchmark pig carcase quality and identify areas for improvement.
One of the key features of PiGIS is that kill weight, grade and condemnation data are directly uploaded from all pig processing plants in Northern Ireland to the central benchmarking database. This information can be accessed in "real time" by registered producers from their home computer via the internet at
www.ruralni.gov.uk/pigis. PiGIS has been developed by a specialist AFBI team and incorporates a back-end SQL Server database and Microsoft .NET web technology. Following extensive testing and incorporation of user feedback, it is easy to use and flexible with self-explanatory analysis and reports.
- Automatic upload of data from processing plants to the online benchmarking database
- Real-time analysis of individual producer data
- Ranking of producers in terms of quality
- Profiles carcase quality in terms of weight and fat depth
- Benchmarks individual producers against the top producers over a specified date range
- The 'Golden Box' shows the percentage of pigs falling within the specified factory ideal weight and fat depth range
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 preliminary work has already started.
