At first glance, the decline in the UK’s pig herd appears to be less than expected this year. Despite the difficult times that UK pig farms are having, their size has fallen by 2.5 per cent to 5.19 million hogs. However, UK pig farms have shrunk by 15 per cent.
In the UK, more than 131,000 pigs will be counted in 2022, bringing the pig herd to 5.192 million animals. Of these, nearly 80 per cent (4.11 million) were held in the UK. In Northern Ireland 0.72 million pigs will still be kept in 2022, in Scotland 0.34 million pigs and in Wales just 26,904 pigs.
The impact of difficult circumstances and negative margins on the UK pig sector has been particularly visible on the breeding side. Nearly 60 per cent of the ‘lost’ pigs were sows and wild boars for breeding and breeding. That is a decrease of 15.2 per cent in the size of British pig farms.
Insemination of sows and fattening pigs
It is surprising that the number of sows inseminated for the first time has decreased by no less than 21 percent. The number of fattening pigs in the UK fell by 54,000 to 4.77 million in one year. That is a decrease of 1.1 per cent, reported the UK’s Ministry of Agriculture through the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
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