Farmer Focus: New abattoir deal rewards higher pig productivity

What a refreshing change it was to have had all winter cereals in the ground, everything rolled and pre-emergence treatments done by the end of October.

Well done to Ed and Dave for getting the work completed in good time and good conditions.

Hopefully, we’ve given ourselves the best start to harvest next year, while still holding our nerve well for grass weeds and barley yellow dwarf virus control.

See also: Heavier pigs and falling prices raise alarms for pork sector

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Jack Bosworth

Livestock Farmer Focus writer Essex pig farmer Jack Bosworth farms 263ha of arable and a 540-sow farrow-to-finish operation in partnership with his family. About 60% of pigs are finished at home and 150 are sent to a farm in Norfolk to finish on a bed and breakfast contract.

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It has been a busy month on the pigs, as per usual, and we are delighted to have secured a new arrangement with an additional abattoir as another outlet.

This requirement came about as a result of increasing productivity – in other words, greater numbers of piglets born – which I mentioned in my August piece.

Of course, these extra numbers meant finding more outlets, and we are really pleased that Simon at United Pig Co-operative helped secure this, particularly at what is proving to be a difficult period for pig sales in the UK.

There is undoubtedly some concern across the pig industry, with weekly slaughterings of finished pigs down since week 40, when compared with both 2023 and 2024.

According to the AHDB, weeks 41, 42 and 43 combined show 22,753 and 20,889 fewer pigs slaughtered than for the same period in 2024 and 2023, respectively. The difference amounts to a drop in slaughtering of about 5%.

When looking at pricing, the climbing average weights and, therefore, P2 backfat measurements, along with a number of negative price changes to the standard pig price over the past few weeks, means we are now wanting to see two U-turns in November.

We really all need to see the start of this month follow the trend of previous years, but at a greater level – namely, a good climb in numbers with a huge lift for Christmas trade beyond that. If we don’t get that, then January could be a tough one.

It has been a good time for pig prices since around the beginning of 2023 and, indeed, more recently for cereal prices, when treating them as an input (wearing my pig hat rather than my arable one).

It’s fair to say the industry was desperate for it after some horrific years before that. I really hope this is just a Halloween spook and that November will kick off with a bang.