Published on Wednesday1stMay2019

Creed announces funding of €500,000 for the roll out of a Lean Principles Programme for Pig Farmers

20190501 Creed Pigs

Agriculture Minister Michael Creed today announced funding of €500,000 for the roll out of a Lean Principles Programme for pig farmers.

Minister Creed said:

In a sector which has shown itself to be remarkably resilient over recent years, the adoption of Lean business principles will assist pig farmers to further increase performance and competitiveness without compromising the animal welfare and food quality principles that are critical to the success of the sector. I would strongly encourage pig farmers to avail of this unique opportunity to work directly with Lean experts on their farms.

The mainstreaming of this programme delivers on one of the key recommendations of the report of Pig Industry Stakeholder Group, chaired by Dr Seán Brady. Following on a successful pilot programme, involving a collaboration between the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Bord Bia, Teagasc and Enterprise Ireland, additional funding has been made available by the Department for a wider roll out the programme. The objective of the programme is to support the adoption of the principles of Lean manufacturing to achieve operational and efficiency improvements at pig producer farm level.

The programme will be available to pig producers in Ireland who are members of the Bord Bia Pigmeat Quality Assurance Scheme.  Participants in the programme will work with a panel of Lean consultants established by Bord Bia and Teagasc to deliver a mix of on-farm Lean Start and Lean Plus projects.