Red Tractor is set to consult on an enhanced welfare module for pigs, initially covering outdoor production, with a higher welfare indoor tier potentially to follow at a later date.
The six-week consultation, to be published at the end of April, will seek views on three enhanced pig welfare tiers, including an outdoor-bred tier that will look similar to the RSPCA Assured scheme for pigs, and an additional free-range tier. The plan, subject to consultation responses, is for these two tiers to be launched towards the end of 2025.
The consultation will also seek views on, at some point in the future, adding an indoor enhanced welfare module, which would be based, possibly among other things, on flexible farrowing.
Outdoor tiers
In developing a module covering outdoor pig production, Red Tractor is moving firmly into RSPCA Assured territory.
“It will essentially be an alternative assurance scheme for existing outdoor-bred and straw-based reared finishers producers who are currently assured by RSPCA,” Ms McDowell said.
“It would include indoor free farrowing as well, in the same way that RSPCA does, although we know there are very few producers doing this currently
“RSPCA does have a free-range standard – they just don’t differentiate between the two via their logo. We are proposing to mirror RSPCA free-range standards, but we have a separate free-range logo, so the consumer can differentiate between standards, if they want to.
A task and finish group, comprising industry experts, has been established as an offshoot of the scheme’s pigs technical advisory committee (TAC) to develop standards for the different tiers.
“We have benchmarked the proposed standard against the RSPCA Assured standards. Part of the discussions with the task and finish group has been looking at we what can tweak potentially to make it more palatable and pragmatic for the sector, while also being mindful of what’s going to be acceptable at retail level,” Ms McDowell said.
Red Tractor believes its outdoor modules would offer pig producers and their customers more options, and could also address one of the UK Farm Assurance Review’s key priorities – reducing the number of farm inspections.
“One of the aims is to deliver streamlining in terms of audit efficiencies and minimising audit burden for producers because we know this is key concern amongst pig producers, as highlighted by the farm assurance review,” Ms McDowell added.
“All those RSPCA Assured farms are also Red Tractor assured and, therefore, they have two separate audits. If they did Red Tractor enhanced welfare, they could just drop down to one out of those two.
“It would all be done as part of a Red Tractor audit by the same assessor there would just be some extra standards that they need to adhere to.”
Indoor tier
The indoor tier is much more complex and is very much still a work in progress. Ms McDowell added: “At the last meeting, the pigs board was interested in progressing the outdoor-bred and the free-range tiers rapidly, subject to a transparent consultation, but there was still some caution around the indoor-plus tier.”
The key criteria for an indoor module would be flexible farrowing, but she explained that there are still too many unknowns about how this might look policy-wise, and about available financial support, to go there yet.
“There is definitely potential that we might look to do it, but we need to understand more from the sector, which is why we are seeking views in this consultation, as well as from Defra and others before we can take it forward,” she added.
“We want to understand people’s plans around their farrowing accommodation and whether they see Red Tractor as playing a role in helping to deliver a voluntary industry approach towards the transition.”
Other aspects of indoor production might be considered under the tier, such as space requirements and the provision of straw, but Red Tractor is keen to avoid the pitfalls of the previous government’s plans for a tiered labelling system, where the higher welfare indoor strand was overly-complex, difficult for farmers to adhere to and almost impossible to audit.
“We could end up not progressing an indoor-plus tier at all, or it might just cover for flexible farrowing, but we need to explore more to understand the retailer appetite for it, as well as producers’ views,” Ms McDowell added.
Customer acceptance
Even if producers want the change, the success of any new enhanced welfare module would require the acceptance of the logo’s end users, particularly retailers, as an alternative to RSPCA Assured.
Red Tractor carried out a stakeholder survey in early 2024, seeking views on tiered welfare labelling and what should be in it.
“This showed there was interest from retailers, but they wanted to know about what it might actually look, particularly the indoor scheme,” Ms McDowell added.
“We think it would be beneficial to members in terms of a reduced audit burden, but that it would also give improved clarity and consistency for consumers.
“With consistency in terms of the Red Tractor logo across those products and the support we would give around consumer communications and expert explanation, it would help improve understanding from consumers.”
She said there was initially some interest from retailers in the indoor-plus module because they were interested in levelling up their own pig standards and also having third party certification of flexible farrowing systems, but they need to know more about what it might look like.
“It partly comes back to what the retailer and consumer would be willing to pay for and whether it is too much for the consumers to understand,” she said. “Is there going to be enough demand and a premium from the consumer to justify the investment that would be required from the producers?”
Farmer-led
Red Tractor is acutely aware that its previous attempt to move beyond its core standards, the launch of the Greener Farms Commitment, did not go well.
Red Tractor pigs board chair Stewart Houston insisted that everything Red Tractor does with enhanced welfare will be led by the industry.
“Whatever we do, this will be something that industry wants and has had involvement in in shaping, rather than Red Tractor just doing what we think is best,” he said.
“One of the key points is that these are voluntary modules. They are not going into the main standard, and this is in response to the industry looking forward and asking us to provide some clarity on welfare standards.”
The consultation will directly ask for comment on the enhanced welfare and free-range tiers, and it will, separately, ask some broader questions around flexible farrowing and a possible indoor tier.
“Ultimately, there’s potential for this to be a very phased launch, starting with the outdoor enhanced welfare tiers, hopefully by the end of this year, and possibly followed at a later date by an indoor-plus tier,” Mr Houston added.