Improving the beef supply chain

Agrimetrics and SRUC to explore market intelligence for beef food chain

“We see opportunities to work with Agrimetrics to improve data acquisition and/or client services, for example through SRUC’s EGENES initiative, whereby animal breeders are provided with updates of genetic indices to add improvements in breeding lines.”

– Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC)

The beef food chain will benefit from a joint commercial venture between big data leader Agrimetrics and Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), reusing breeding data to provide market information services.

SRUC comments: “We see opportunities to work with Agrimetrics to improve data acquisition and/or client services, for example through SRUC’s EGENES initiative, whereby animal breeders are provided with updates of genetic indices to add improvements in breeding lines.”

Agrimetrics has recently met with EGENES and SRUC research and consultancy staff to explore the potential for a joint commercial venture re-using breeding data to provide market information services to the beef food chain.

Agrimetrics Knowledge Exchange Manager Teresa Shutter, based at SRUC in Edinburgh, is overseeing these projects and liaising with local academics government and industry.

She says: “My main objectives are to identify areas of collaboration and training to encourage the adoption of big data, bringing innovation to the food supply chain. At SRUC, I’ve set up the Agrimetrics Media Suite – a facility which can be used to record data training courses and deliver long distance seminars.

Focusing on livestock data, epidemiology, food waste and supply chain data, the courses will be aimed at disseminating the latest data developments to the sector.”

Agrimetrics and EGENES are working together to develop a state-of-the-art animal genetics course aimed to satisfy the vets need for continuous professional development.

SRUC is a founding partner in three of the four new Centres for Agricultural Innovation created by the UK government through Innovate UK: Agrimetrics, Agri-EPI (precision engineering) and CIEL (livestock). Supporting the development of land-based industries and rural communities, SRUC Research has been recognised in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) where veterinary and agricultural research at the University of Edinburgh and SRUC was ranked as most powerful in the UK.

Find out more about Scotland’s Rural College at www.sruc.ac.uk.

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