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Norfolk Rural Business Advice Service (NRBAS)has been working with the group over the last 2 years. Funding has been identified and specific industry training has been planned.

Three years ago NRBAS, Easton College and the National Pig Association (NPA) jointly organised a series of workshops which enabled a number of producers in the South Norfolk and North Suffolk areas to share best practice. At the time of the workshops, the pig sector in general was suffering from disease problems which was having a major impact on many businesses. The aim of the groups was to investigate best management practices being employed at the time to reduce the impact of the disease.

These groups were well attended and proved very popular with the participating farmers. As a result of the initial workshops, many farmers were able to tackle the disease on their individual farms. The wider impact of the groups work meant that the Meat and Livestock Commission (MLC) were able to promote the best practice to the farmers and producers nationally resulting in an overall reduction of disease incidence on UK farms.

Work is ongoing. Many of the farmers continue to meet and develop the group to cover other issues, particularly training. Investigation into the training needs was carried out using the Training Needs Assessments which were carried out for the managers and their staff by Chris Plail of Easton College. This identified areas where additional skills were needed and desirable and the delivery of a programme of courses for the autumn and winter period of 2006 to 2007 has begun.

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