High-welfare approach attracts staff to award winner’s pig unit

A strong focus on animal welfare has attracted new staff to a Norfolk pig farmer’s outdoor pig business.

As a result of his win at the Farmers Weekly Awards, Guy King says he was approached by prospective employees who were particularly interested in his high-welfare approach to production.

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GSK Pigs, based near Dereham, has almost 9,000 sows across nine outdoor breeding units in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Each unit is run as a closed herd operating independently from the others, with its own machinery and dedicated team of staff.

Seven of the units are conventionally farmed, with pigs supplied by BQP.

The remaining two comprise an organic farrow-to-finish division – Greenlane Organics – and a rare breed unit, which supplies high-end restaurants and hotels.

Welfare is a key priority, with Guy investing in technology such as PigVision management software to enable instant, continual monitoring of pig health.

Recruitment

“On the back of the win, I have been able to recruit some really good people,” he says.

“I got asked to do some discussion groups, and at one of those talks, there was a chap who seemed really interested in what we were doing.

“From that, we were able to recruit him into a new role.”

The role is a managerial one, with this latest recruit now responsible for the management of the organic part of the business, alongside Guy.

“I think [the award] put the message out that we’re a forward-thinking business.

“Something he really liked was the fact that we don’t merge the businesses, and he was really enthusiastic about managing [the farm].”

Organic expansion

As a direct result of having another member of staff on board, Guy has been able to develop the organic area of his business – something he had been wanting to do for some time.

“We were thinking about expanding this side of the business last year. The wheels were in motion, but we hadn’t quite got there,” he says.

Things changed after Christmas when he started selling more organic pigs, and he has gone on to take over an additional organic business, which he has merged with Greenlane Organics.

“We’re now quite big players in the organic pig market. So much so, that we’re now producing and selling 200 organic finished pigs a week, which we weren’t doing this time last year.”

The pigs go into the organic market via Pilgrim’s, with a small proportion also going to smaller, independent organic buyers.

“That [the recruitment] has played an integral part in expanding the organic side of the business – we’ve now got a really good person heading up that team.

“He’s brought a lot to the party and without him, it wouldn’t have been as easy to get this project off the ground.”