Ian Wheal
Breedr,
West Sussex
Sponsored by: ADAS
Breedr is a data platform for livestock farmers, which utilises existing tools such as EID and scales to give producers a better insight into their production efficiencies.
It helps them stay aligned with regulatory needs, recording movements, weights, medicine usage and breeding indicators in one place.
It also enables them to sell direct to other farmers or the final processor based on that data, linking the whole supply chain.
The idea is to allow farmers to generate value from all the data collected on farm and members are already seeing 10-20 per cent efficiency improvements.
The company is committed to making the platform as easy as possible to use, and as a result, about 60 per cent of its new customers are first-time engagers with technology.
All members need to do is download a free app, on which all the information about their animals is recorded.
Breedr even has an algorithm to predict growth rates, so farmers can identify the optimum time to finish stock, helping processors have more certainty over beef supplies.
This has allowed the company to negotiate the UK’s first ever minimum fixed price 24-month beef contract, giving farmers confidence to invest and enabling them to borrow money to buy new stock. The business also launched live trading this year, so farmers can list their animals for sale complete with all their data.
Confidence
This means buyers can have confidence and reduce marketing costs for sellers by 50 per cent, compared with traditional methods. A suite of breeding tools based on AHDB’s key performance indicators (KPIs) are included in the app too, with farmers able to record information including the dams and sires used,
calving ease and weaning weights and produce a free KPI report.
Future plans to introduce environmental tracking and sustainable finance will also be a big help to farmers as support systems in England and Wales transition away from direct payments.