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Maitland Mackie (of Mackie’s Ice Cream fame) established the Scottish Pig Industry Initiative (SPII) in 1990.
This was the first farm-based quality assurance scheme in Scotland, if not the UK.
Many of his fellow pig producers, me included, were sceptical about how this would be of benefit to the Scottish pig herd.
No matter, over the next couple of years, the vast majority of pig farmers duly signed up to the scheme. We had a set of standards, an annual inspection and a quarterly vet visit.
After a couple of years, you realised that it wasn’t too onerous, and that a quarterly vet visit was actually good business practice.
Over time, the standards kept getting enhanced, and to give us a further point of difference, we got an SSPCA (Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) inspector to accompany the farm assurance inspector.
Initially, it was thought that we would get a premium price due to our pigs being Quality Assured. It soon became apparent that actually, it was non-assured animals that would be discounted or even impossible to sell. The same has become true of equivalent schemes for beef, sheep, cereals, etc.
But perhaps the best thing about SPII was that we managed to keep the supermarkets from implementing their own schemes – at least, for a reasonable length of time.
But that has now changed. First of all, we had Tesco doing its own unannounced Integra inspections. Then we had Co-op membership with additional requirements.
Morrisons also has its own add-ons.
Most recently, I got a phone call at 8.30pm on a Thursday night, asking if we would facilitate an M&S inspection the following day. To be fair, there had been a call-off by someone else for legitimate reasons and the M&S add-ons aren’t too bad.
Best practice
But I just wish these companies would realise that we are already complying with best practice by being part of our farm assurance schemes.
Given that farmers are involved in the standard-setting committees, there aren’t daft requirements in our schemes, like there are in some of the supermarket standards.
For instance, some of the supermarket schemes insist on no routine tail-docking/teeth clipping of pigs, because they don’t like mutilation.
Also, on-farm tranquillisers are not allowed, even though these are generally only used if a gilt/sow is savaging her piglets (and therefore help prevent mutilation).
Finally, in pigs, supermarkets want no castration, yet on cattle there is a clear preference for steers.
Rather than sitting round tables dreaming up daft rules, surely it would be far better if they invited a couple of farmers along to point out where their standards are actually compromising animal welfare.
Premium
At the end of the day, all these additional requirements would be far more palatable if they were accompanied by a premium over the standard market price.
Unfortunately, this is rarely the case, despite the fact that compliance with these standards often means changes in practice or administration, and lead to an increase in cost of production for farmers.
Hopefully, with Brexit coming, our product won’t be substituted from abroad, as it can’t possibly comply with the high standards set by our supermarkets. But don’t hold your breath.
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