Even pig farming needs Knowledge Management

According to The Pigsite, even the humble pig farming industry is in need of knowledge management. 

Three Little Pigs, by Heather Paul. on Flickr

The pig farming industry, like many commodity industries, has to deal with price volatility. When prices are low, this needs to be managed, but in such a way that you are ready to capitalise when prices rise again. The quoted article above describes how  Sir Peter Kendall, chairman of the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board, told a UK House of Lords committee that there has been a failure to provide pig farmers with the instruments to help them cope with volatility.

The answer, according to Eirwen Williams from an independent economic development company, is for farmers to become more innovative and come up with new ways to transfer knowledge. By forming discussion groups farmers would be able to share ideas and benchmark their achievements.

“Getting farmers to engage and benchmark isn’t an easy thing to do, but they see the benefit when they do,” she told the committee. 

Maybe 20 years ago, farmers would meet down the pub and share knowledge over a few pints. Nowadays, things need to be a bit more structured.

There are some great examples out there of Farming communities of practice, such as

• The Farming for Health community
• The community of practice on legal aspects of contract farming
• The soils community of practice

Now, the pig farmers. Is there no industry which knowledge management cannot help?