Beef producers could increase cattle profits by £100 per head and reduce the amount of waste and carbon emissions by 5-10% and more than 20%, respectively, by joining Breedr, a precision livestock network.

That was the stark claim of Breedr founder and chief executive, Ian Wheal, who told a press webinar that more than 900 farms from Orkney to Cornwall had downloaded the app to bolster on farm productivity and profitability.

Data from AHDB show that only 55% of the cattle slaughtered in the UK hit spec’ resulting in a dramatic variance in beef eating quality and environmental waste, which in turn reduced overall farm profitability, Mr Wheal said.

However, analysis of the carcase kill sheets of animals produced using the Breedr app to date show that 79% of the cattle hit top specification, finishing on average five months earlier, which saves the farmer 1.8 tonnes of feed per animal.

As a result, Mr Wheal pointed out that if every beef farmer in the UK used the app, there would be 474,320 more prime cattle in spec’; produced from 3.6m tonnes less feed per year, saving the farmer £650m of feed. It would also mean 360,000 less acres would be required for feed production and 1.26m less tones of greenhouse gases would be emitted.

James Wright, product manager at Breedr, said the app can be used with electronic identification tags, or passport numbers both online and off line. It can be used to record individual animal weights, work out average daily liveweight gains and therefore predict when cattle will be ready for slaughter thereby assisting with cashflows. It also records health and medical record.

It also enabled individual farmers to compare the performance of their cattle with others on similar systems, using the app.