AHDB data highlights scale of pig industry concerns
Figures from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and Defra has shed light on how the issues in the UK pig industry are impacting the size of the national pig herd.
Reported by the National Pig Association (NPA), Defra’s June Agricultural Survey reveals English pig breeding has decreased by 18% within a year.
The figures show the female breeding herd in England was below 261,000 in June 2022 compared with 313,000 in June 2021, indicating a loss of more than 50,000 sows and gilts.
NPA said that this was the lowest breeding herd figure in the past 20 years, with large decreases seen across all categories. There was also a 28% decline in gilt numbers and proportionally lower drops in in-pig sows (-14%) and dry sows (-18%).
Other breeding pigs including boars also saw a decrease in 2022, falling by 24% from 90,000 to 68,000.
The overall English pig herd decreased by 3% over the year to just over 4.1 million animals, with fattening pig numbers accounting for 92% of the total, down 1.4% to 3.8% over the 12-months.
AgroVision’s new anonymised pig herd data for the UK shows a 17% year-on-year decline in the sow heard up to July, with a 3% decline in the number of services recorded in July, and a 30% annual decline in weaner numbers.
NPA chief executive Lizzie Wilson said the recent results from Defra and AgroVision are “deeply worrying, although not surprising.”
Further financial concerns
Producers lost on average £52 per pig in Q2, according to the latest AHDB cost of production and margin estimations for the second quarter.
This follows losses of £58 per pig in Q1 and £39 per pig in Q4 2021, meaning producers have now seen seven quarters of negative margins. The NPA reported that the cumulative losses are estimated at £600 million since autumn 2020.
Spot compound feed average costs have come down to 231p per kg in July and 223p per kg in August as prices have continued to ease since May 2022, according to the latest AHDB estimate. However, producers are still on average seeing significant losses with pig prices around the 200p per kg mark.
NPA reported numerous producers have already been forced to leave the industry, and many more have reduced their sow herds.
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