High-tech help for beef farmers

Beef farmers in Shropshire can look forward to enhancing their business competitiveness when they enrol on a £1 million e-commerce course.

The innovative Farm Connections scheme is aimed at integrating beef producers into the professional supply chain with a package which includes the provision of laptops, enterprise software and full support and software training.

Farm Connections, which will also run in the South West and Wales, was developed out of a partnership between Sainsbury's, major meat processor Anglo Beef Processors, and the Red Meat Industry Forum, an organisation set up to help the sector recapture and maintain a leading position in the marketplace.

The training, part-funded by regional development agency Advantage West Midlands' Rural Regeneration Zone, will allow farmers to view a range of vital data via a click of a button - from information on carcass quality to the latest market stats and consumer trends.

The aim of the course is to help up to 250 farmers in the West Midlands understand their costs. Training for Farm Connections starts in the region this month and runs to March 2008 - serving as a timely incentive to farmers keen to develop their business skills as they adjust to reduced subsidy support and increased global competitiveness.

Peter Ford, 60, and wife Helen, 55, who farm 240 acres around Prees, near Whitchurch, have enrolled for training to allow an even smoother running of their beef and arable enterprise.

"The way forward is obviously with computers and the internet," said Mr Ford, a farmer for 45 years. "Whenever you speak to anyone over the phone you're always being asked: 'Are you on the internet?'."

Mrs Ford added: "At the moment Peter records everything in a book but he'll find using a computer very adaptable for gathering information such as cattle movements."

Ian Edwards, head of rural partnerships at AWM, said: "It is important that our region's farmers are not excluded from advantages open to all other small businesses, and that during these difficult times for beef farmers, in particular, it is vital that they develop a competitive edge. We believe that this project will help with that."

A shock recent survey of 2,500 red-meat producers in England indicated that only 20-30 per cent of them held farm accounts on computers, with only 50 per cent able to receive email.

Farm Connections, launched in Oxford earlier in the year, is available to all suppliers of Sainsbury's Taste the Difference, So Organic and Jamie Oliver 21-day Matured Beef and has already signed up participants from throughout the West Midlands for training.