Pilgrim’s Pride Ltd. has been hosting virtual farm tours for partners, potential suppliers and stakeholders for when it has not been possible to visit in person due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The integrated pig producer and processor introduced virtual tours for farmers looking to diversify their portfolio and who are considering introducing livestock for the first time. The virtual tour has enabled farmers to learn more about the benefits of becoming a contracted farmer partner (agister) with Pilgrim’s high welfare grower and pig finishing operation.
Richard Gooding, BQP grower farms manager at Pilgrims UK, said it is vital that they can still have important conversations with potential farming partners, building relationships and sharing our industry-leading farming practices.
He added that whilst Pilgrim’s UK are looking forward to when on-site visits can resume, the ability to stream live into people’s homes has been a really useful tool and thinks they will continue these in the months ahead: “We’re able to show all areas of our sites, talking them through the daily routines of the pig farms, as well as explaining the benefits to the soil of using arable rotation systems and how we can work together in the future.”
Andrew Saunders, agriculture director at Pilgrim’s UK, also advocated for the virtual session as a way to ensure conversations could continue, and added: “We partner with over 1,400 UK farmers and our local, resilient and British farming supply chain means that we were able to safely continue to feed the nation during Covid-19. Our contract pig farmers are part of arable rotations within our unique business model where we own the livestock enabling us to reward our farmers for high quality, animal welfare and sustainable farming practices.”
