UK: Rapid fall in the number of sows in Great Britain

In the United Kingdom, more than 131,000 fewer pigs will be counted in 2022, bringing the pig herd to 5.192 million animals. Of these, nearly 80 percent (4.11 million) are held in England. In Northern Ireland, 0.72 million pigs will still be kept in 2022, in Scotland 0.34 million pigs and in Wales only 26,904 pigs. The impact of the difficult circumstances and negative margins in the British pig farming sector is mainly visible on the propagation side. Almost 60 percent of the 'disappeared' pigs are sows and boars for breeding and multiplication. That is a decrease of 15.2 percent in the size of the British sow farm. Inseminated breeding sows and fattening pigs It is striking that the number of breeding sows inseminated for the first time has decreased ...