Farmer focus: Pig educational unit will help industry careers

At this festive time, we look back on the year that’s been, writing with triumph on the many achievements while also reflecting on the inevitable, but occasional, low points.

I’m focusing on the future because, as someone smarter than me once said: “The past is a closed door, the present is an open one and the future is a fast-approaching one.”

See also: Advice to help progress your farming career

About the author

Rob McGregor

Rob McGregor has joint responsibility for the management of breeding sows, environmental projects and artificial insemination stud at family-run free-range pig producer NFL, which supplies high-welfare, sustainably produced pork to one of the country’s major retailers.

Read more articles by Rob McGregor

I’ve been asked to oversee performance and welfare standards on multiple farms, alongside helping to drive forward our environmental and sustainability programme.

We have recognised the need to attract new talent into the industry, and I will be increasingly taking the opportunity to engage with young people and those who might have started a career elsewhere before reconsidering and are now looking for something different.

At a recent school careers day, I was taken by surprise at the overwhelmingly positive reactions I got from students while talking about how working in agriculture might look for them.

During the course of 2026 we will be establishing a commercial-scale, outdoor breeding unit at an educational establishment near us in Norfolk.

This will be a unique facility to help inspire a new generation of livestock careers through both practical experience and curricular studies.

I hope over time this will prove beneficial to our recruiting aspirations.

Fear not if you’re thinking I’m going all “briefcase and tweed jacket”. 

I’m still going to be in the thick of things out in the fields, building paddocks, lumping feed about and keeping check on what are, at times, demanding stock routines.

Expansion focus

Right now we are expanding our gilt mating capacity, partly through the expansion of our existing facility, but also (excitingly) with the establishment of a brand new unit.

Running through the core of these projects is an unwavering focus on welfare and our desire to improve environmental and sustainable practices.

Our retailer-led goal to farm for nature will be going up another peg in 2026, and my interest in this objective remains significant.

There is going to be lots to talk about over the next 12 months, but for now I wish you a happy Christmas.