Meadow Quality Producer gets ahead with RMIF


Martin Hodgson is a Meadow Quality producer that is taking advantage of the Red Meat Industry Forum scheme to help improve his profits and work towards a sustainable business for the future.

Martin manages a farm in Hull and buys calves from MQ, finishing 40- 50 a year. He has inputted his farm's physical and financial data onto the completely confidential and secure RMIF benchmarking (comparison) system. He is now able to see how his farm ranks against similar farm units, both locally and nationally. This has highlighted where his business is doing well, but more importantly has pinpointed where he could make practical improvements on-farm.

The real key to the RMIF service lies in the Business Clubs that are set up. Farmers get together in groups of about ten to share the best ways of doing things, and work out which areas they could improve. This works well as different producers have different strengths meaning that Club members can share their knowledge and take home new ideas to implement in their businesses. An RMIF member of staff helps the Clubs get up and running, and is also on call along the way. Some Clubs bring in expert speakers to help them on particular issues, but ultimately the Clubs are for farmers by farmers, and they can set their own agenda with the RMIF staff on hand to help with any special requests.

Martin is not yet a member of a Club, but even so, has already been able to use the system to compare and contrast his business against others. His processors have suggested he start to produce more cattle for them.  However, post-CAP reform, he will obviously not receive any more subsidies for increased headage. For this reason, Martin wants to make sure he knows exactly what his costs of production are per kilo, to see if the suggested increase in production is a viable possibility.

This is just the beginning for Martin, he will then go on to use the data to look at all areas of his business, and make sure that his decisions for the future are the right ones.

If you would like to find out more about how you can join the RMIF Business Clubs, or for more information, call RMIF on 01908 844710.