Devon-based Lester Bowker, who is quitting after 21 years as a pig farmer, says it does not make economic sense for family farms to stay in the business.
“At the moment we are just about standing still . . . we are not investing in the business. So I’m looking at it and thinking, ‘What’s the point going forward’?,” he adds.
UK farmers are part of a global trend as the cost of feed and compliance with welfare regulations hits suppliers worldwide.
Britain’s pig herd has already virtually halved in the past decade to about 420,000 sows, and self-sufficiency in pig meat has fallen below 50 per cent.
Cheap imported pork from mainland Europe were partly to blame, but farmers say these will not continue as welfare legislation and higher feed costs hit rival producers wherever they are based.
In the US, in July 8.57m pigs went to slaughter, up 5 per cent from a year before. The US Department of Agriculture estimates domestic pork production will decline by 1.3 per cent in 2013 as feed costs put farmers under pressure.
