Transition Farmer: Farm purchase adds resilience to pig business

Purchasing a farm has allowed pig producers Vicky and Kate Morgan and their family to strengthen the business and move towards greater self-sufficiency.

We catch up with him in East Yorkshire to find out the acquisition is supporting their Transition goals.

See also: More from Vicky and Kate Morgan

Vicky and Kate Morgan

The Morgan family acquired a 129ha former livestock holding in November 2025 after the owner retired from farming.

Located 10 miles from the home farm, it will provide straw for their pig unit while the expanded acreage offers additional land to spread slurry generated by the herd, says Vicky.

“We have always wanted to be more self-sufficient, and when this opportunity arose it was a good fit for our existing business,” she says.

The acquisition also offers the option for expanding livestock activities in the future should they decide to follow that route.  

Among the features that appealed were the farm’s three existing holiday cottages, as well as facilities to construct a further five, which are scheduled for a summer 2026 launch.

Holiday accommodation is a farm diversification the Morgans have experience of and excel at as they have six lodges at their principal farm and last year converted a former pumphouse, all with strong occupancy rates. 

Pig production remains the core business and is the main source of income, but the diversification is important, especially during periods when the pig sector is under financial pressure, as it is currently. 

For the Morgans, an outbreak of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) added further pressure.

Introducing a vaccination programme is now helping to protect the herd, but it took time to get on top of the disease. 

“We went for mass vaccination on the breeding unit and came out the other side, but it lingered for quite a lot longer on the finishing unit; we are still vaccinating piglets for PRRS now,’’ says Kate. 

“It is a disease that lingers, it is difficult to get rid of it altogether.”

But once it was eliminated from the breeding herd, 2025 was one of the unit’s most productive years.

“The breeding unit flew last year, from March onwards we probably never produced as many pigs as we did in 2025 and they were good pigs,” Vicky adds. 

“We now have more of an awareness of what can go wrong because that was the first proper disease outbreak we have ever had on the unit.”