30 July 2024

4 minute read

By: Genesus Genetics

Pig prices across Europe remain high enough for pig farming to remain profitable. As always when this is the case pig farmers are happy. What is the only thing we can know from this situation? That at some time in the future (1 or 2 years we can assume) that this will not be the case. Pig price will be low, and many farmers will be losing money.

Just like “death and taxes are the only guarantee in our human lives”, the pig cycle is a guarantee of being a pig farmer. Is there a way to stop the boom and bust in our business? History tells us not….

Here I want to use another well-known phrase. “Stupidity is to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result”. If we change nothing, nothing is ever going to change!! In my (well over 40 years) time in the pig industry the pig cycle has done its thing……

Our (pig farmer) industry has some serious flaws – in terms of maintaining long term profitable business..

1, We have an 11-month production cycle (breeding a sow to sending a pig for slaughter) and then we have a 2-to-3-week window of opportunity!!! This means it is in reality impossible to control supply to match demand. Yes we can euthanise young pigs or abort / slaughter pregnant sows to reduce supply. We can’t however increase production quickly to take advantage of higher prices..

2, We produce a product that consumers do not want to buy!! By this I mean a live pig! 99.999% of people who want to eat pork do not want to have to slaughter and butcher a live pig to do so. We therefore need other parts of the supply chain to fulfil the end consumers wishes.

3, We are (especially in Europe) excessively legislated against. The vast majority of this legislation increases cost of production and a good deal of it reduces efficiency. None of it adds to the price we can sell pork for! One of the current targets is the farrowing crate. There are very good reasons as pig farmers we developed the use of the farrowing crate. It was designed to keep more piglets alive (good welfare and good for being able to make money). It was also as a form of protection for people working with farrowing sows. It was certainly not designed as a form of torture for sows!

I have absolutely nothing against the use of freedom farrowing crates. The problem is blanket bans. Let the consumer decide. If they want to pay more for pork born in a freedom crate, then fine (it costs more so farmers need a higher price). If there is a blanket ban of crates, then all pork is reared this way – so the opportunity to get a premium is gone… Then all we have is higher cost!!

Maybe the answer to how to change is to give the consumer more freedom. As pig farmers we have been led down the road of a monoculture pig. Grown to a specific weight, with a specific (and low) level of backfat and that has to be produced at the lowest possible cost! What would the car industry or clothing industry (or many other industries) look like if the same thing had happened.

In all other industries consumers have a lot more choice! There are a lot of different consumers out there with many many different needs, from low income to high income. From eat at home to eat out. With different tastes (likes and dis-likes)…. How can these huge variation in demand be supplied from monoculture production??

One really bizarre one is that a lot of the legislation we see today is driven by part of the population that is not a consumer of pork at all. Vegans and vegetarians of course. How can we have a situation that people who do not even consume a product get any say on how it is produced??

To create long term profitable and sustainable pig production we have to do something to break the pig cycle. I certainly don’t have a guaranteed way to do this, just some ideas that might help. What I do know for sure is if you change nothing then nothing will ever change!!