BPEX has announced a workshop to review Red Tractor’s Real Welfare audits and identify and recommend ways they can be improved.
The workshop will be on September 9 and the Pig Veterinary Society and NPA have asked a number of vets and producers to attend and share their experiences.
BPEX says any other producers and vets who wish to submit comments and ideas may do so by emailing rwtraining@bpex.ahdb.org.uk and asking for a comments form. All comments received by August 31 will be collated for discussion at the workshop.
At a series of of meetings earlier this year producers were promised that Real Welfare audits would be reviewed after six months.
The aim of the September workshop is to identify and make recommendations to a steering group, which will meet in October. The aim of the steering group is to enhance practicality of the assessments while maintaining their credibility.
The October review will not be considering whether to discontinue Real Welfare assessments and no changes to Real Welfare will be made before April 2014, to ensure a full year of comparable data.
But any practical tips from the workshop, on completing the assessments, will be communicated as quickly as possible to vets undertaking Real Welfare assessments, and Red Tractor scheme members.
