Hog producers are inundated with information to help them make the best management decisions for their operation, but sometimes that avalanche of data can get overwhelming.

“Today we print out the performance summaries, etc., and circulate them around, and everyone spends time looking at the raw data,” says Aaron Lower, veterinarian on the New Product Tour panel. “Some people make decisions off of it, but we spend a lot of time looking at data without really looking for signals.”

PigChamp is now providing a web-based service enabling users to access benchmarking, statistical process control charting and dashboard gauges to help producers wade through myriad data, taking benchmarking to a new level by allowing for the comparison of key industry attributes against the global PigChamp database, by size, geography, parity or operation.

Jayne Jackson, PigChamp product and sales manager, says the PigChamp benchmarking and ranking features are free to current PigChamp producers, and will allow producers access to 20 years’ worth of PigChamp production data. There will be a six-month trial for the dashboard, but eventually it will become a fee feature.

Producers will be able to make comparisons of their own data against larger data sets provided by other producers to benchmark their performance against competitors or similar operations. In addition to ranking features, benchmarking can be done on a global level, providing users with an even larger picture.

“You can select your individual farm, but if you’re an integrator, or someone who has multiple farms within your organization,” Jackson explains, “you can take your farm group and compare it with our data-set.” Once the Knowledge Center goes live, Jackson says data from 1 million sows will be available. Automated, aggregated data will be uploaded. A gradual rollout to PigChamp users will occur over the remainder of this year and into 2018.

Being web-based, the Knowledge Center allows producers to monitor farm productivity with easy-to-use gauges and SPC charts from anywhere they are connected through computer or tablet. It is anticipated that smartphone capabilities will be part of a future phase.

The ability to set up a dashboard to present key production attributes allows producers to get a quick glimpse, “just telling me when things are out of control,” Lower says. “Then the farm can really concentrate on the things they need to be looking at.”

The Knowledge Center provides the ability to create a personalized dashboard (for a six-month trial) where users can choose several production attributes to automatically populate on their home page with the information, charts and graphs that are most useful to them. Regularly referenced reports, SPC charts, benchmark summaries and custom targets will allow producers to make real-time decisions for each individual farm.

The PigChamp Knowledge Center offers several unique features to users including:
■ easy access by anyone in the organization via the web, no matter their location
■ ability to compare data globally by various demographics
■ live performance analysis through a customizable dashboard
■ access to the database for allied industry, academia and other industry parties for information related to their respective interests

Jackson says the current Knowledge Center is looking at sow production numbers, while Phase 2 will be including grow-finish production data.

Though benchmarking is free to current PigChamp clients, non-PigChamp users will be able to benefit from the extensive database, but for a fee.

For more information, visit PigCHAMP.com or contact Jayne Jackson, 866-774-4242, ext. 27, or [email protected].