Interested in enhancing the technical skills of your employees?

If so we have available two interactive CD-ROM based multimedia training packages which have been jointly developed by the University of Aberdeen, Garth Veterinary Group, the Meat and Livestock Commission, the National Pig Association and the University of Newcastle, with additional assistance from the Agskills training group. Development costs were match funded by a grant from the DEFRA Agricultural Development Scheme and the Meat and Livestock Commission.

The scheme's objective is to assist the British pig industry to improve its competitive position through increasing production efficiency, reducing cost and improving product quality through training. The training package is available free to UK producers, and may be purchased by non-uk producers at a cost of £100 each or £175 for the pair.

The first CD has been developed for the training of stockworkers and new entrants to pig production and has three main elements:

1. Stockmanship and husbandry
2. Health management
3. Cost effective feeding strategies

The second CD is more advanced and is targeted at unit managers and includes:

1. Staff management
2. Financial planning
3. Food Safety
4. Biosecurity
5. Legislation
6. Product quality

The multimedia approach allows staff to be trained on site at their own speed - "individual tailored self-learning" - without the need to travel to training centres.

The CD-ROM format consists of self-assessments, skills exercises, questionnaires, feedback, video footage, pictorials and guidelines. It requires only basic computer skills and is very user-friendly.


Following completion of the CDs and testing on commercial farms they are now available and free to producers, ancillary industries, colleges, universities, training organisations and pig veterinarians.

If you would like to purchase a copy of the interactive CD-ROMs please email us at: with your request.