Pig farm in Shropshire to close due to rise in feed price

A pig farmer who has seen the cost of feed go up by about 50% has decided to close his farm.

Peter Woodhall, from Warwick Farm, near Shrewsbury, has produced, along with son-in-law Nigel Lloyd, about 5,000 pigs a year for bacon for a supermarket.

But the farm has gone from profit to potential losses running to hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Mr Lloyd had planned to ultimately take it over fully.

Until recently, they were planning to expand the farm, with the aim of son-in-law Mr Lloyd having it completely when Mr Woodhall retired.

The pigs at the site west of Shrewsbury are at the sharp end of a national farming crisis.

Mr Woodhall said he had been farming for more than 50 years and this was the hardest it had ever been.

Mr Lloyd stated: "If something doesn't change, then it's pretty terminal for the British pig industry."

The breeding sows have gone, the housing is now empty, hosed down ready for sale, and soon the remaining pigs will follow.

So what went so badly wrong here? It is a perfect storm of events and it starts with the price of feed for the pigs.

Mr Woodhall said: "Sadly, the last six months, feed prices have gone through the roof. They've gone up about 48, 50%."

At the same time the price of pork, the final value of the animals, plummeted.

Almost overnight the farm went from profit to potential losses of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Getting pigs to abattoirs is another issue the industry is facing at the moment.

Because of Brexit there has been a lack of abattoir workers, which means it has been hard to move the animals off the farm.

Mr Woodhall said: "I think probably one of the problems with the current situation is that there won't be the place for small family farms like ours."

His son-in-law stated while members of the public would still find bacon in shops, closing the farm had knock-on effects locally.

Mr Lloyd added: "We employed a small team of staff here and they've all had to go unfortunately.

"There will continue to be pork products in the supermarket, but it won't be British, it won't be to the high standards and it won't be sort of investing in British countryside."

Recently the pork price has slowly started to recover, but it is nowhere near the level needed to save this once profitable farm.

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