Pig herd under threat
Pig herd under threat
A survey by the NPA has confirmed that the national pig herd is starting to shrink. The survey has shown that around ten per cent of production will disappear by Christmas, unless prices improve.
In July, when the cost of feed wheat increased by over 25 per cent, and soya increased by even more, some producers took an early decision that these high costs were unsustainable and started culling sows.
It appears that 26,000 sows and boars were culled in England and Wales in July, an increase of 7,000 compared to just a month earlier.
These Defra figures tally exactly with the number of sows that NPA believed to have left the industry in July.
Current NPA intelligence indicates that when the August statistics are available they will show an on-going upward trend in sow slaughtering’s.
Additionally, the latest Pig Market Trends produced by AHDB Market Intelligence reports that UK slaughterings and production remain high in July and early August. Sow cullings in July were up by a 25 per cent on July 2011 as some producers de‐stock due to high feed costs.
