FDBusiness.com

UK grocery retailer Morrisons will become the first meat processor to log the identity of each lamb that passes through its doors and provide farmers with information about its final weight and grade. This has been made possible by the compulsory introduction of EiD Tags in Scottish Lambs.

Lamb producers are currently able to get key information such as carcass yields, weights and grades through the Morrisons website, but would not have been able to match this data to individual ear tag numbers. Morrisons worked closely with Scot EID and QMS to make this scheme a reality.

The retailer’s abattoir in Turriff, Scotland, is now matching ear tags to carcass data automatically. This information will help farmers improve their breeding, rearing and feeding programmes.

The firm’s new website will offer transparency to the Morrisons farming supplier base, housing a wealth of useful information in one place.

Andrew Loftus, agriculture manager at Morrisons, says: “We are committed to providing information back to all farmers that will help them to improve their breeding, rearing and feeding programmes. By working together with our farmers, Morrisons can help to make British farming more efficient and competitive. We are committed to investing in technology and innovation that will provide real benefit to our farmers.”

Kathy Peebles of Quality Meat Scotland backs the scheme, saying: “For too long the UK sheep industry has been at a disadvantage from not readily being able to identify poorer performing bloodlines.  Having the ability to manage your flock with individual information from birth to slaughter brings sheep farming into the 21st century.  There is no more hiding for underperforming rams and ewes which in the past may have just slipped through the system, as inevitably they were the ones to retain better body condition and look better to the eye of the farmer.”