Farmers Weekly Awards 2022: Farm Manager of the Year

Rob McGregor of LSB Pigs, Norfolk is Farmers Weekly’s Farm Manager of the Year.

Rob McGregor has devoted his career to the outdoor pig sector and his influence has improved welfare and efficiency way beyond the two outdoor herds he manages in Norfolk.

The herds rear weaners for BQP finishers, which in turn supply Waitrose and premium ranges at other retailers and food manufacturers.

BQP owns the pigs, provides the feed and haulage, and covers vet costs, with LSB Pigs providing the land, labour, straw, machinery and equipment.

Many of the performance indicators for the 1,450 sows are in the top 10% or top-third bracket.

See also: Farmers Weekly Awards 2022: Farm Manager of the Year finalists 

As well as running the two sites with a team of eight, Rob’s responsibilities include financial planning and investment, in conjunction with the owner of LSB Pigs.

Innovation

Rob is on a constant mission to improve – pioneering new production methods has been a key part of his work, including the introduction of individual farrowing paddocks, batch farrowing and artificial insemination techniques.

After being proven at LSB, several of these have become industry-wide innovations.

Products adopted throughout the country and overseas include heat-reflective coatings for steel arks, single-piece plastic farrowing arks, clean water drinking tanks and rounded-top plastic farrowing fenders.

The single most significant innovation has been clean water tanks, reducing waste and raising intake due to better water quality.

“The changes we have seen in physical performance of the animals since the introduction of these drinkers have been outstanding,” says Rob.

Welfare and efficiency considerations were at the heart of his recent decision to move recently to five-week weaning, with promising results in both sows and piglets.

The aim is for stronger, healthier, heavier piglets that are better able to stand transport and require less medication and fewer days to finish.

Trials are being conducted with AgBag ensiled sugar beet as an alternative feed, and Rob is working with the AHDB, Anglia Water and Norfolk Rivers Trust on a green cover crop trial.

Performance

Results from four-week weaning include 28 pigs reared a sow a year, 13.8 pigs born alive a litter, 11.7 pigs weaned a litter, and 2.35 litters a year, all in the top 10% or top-third of nationally benchmarked outdoor herds.

The herd is kept as closed as possible, breeding its own replacement parent stock with minimal grandparent stock intake.

Staff

The size of the business offers career progression opportunities.

It’s clear that Rob encourages a positive team spirit, taking care to recognise strengths and areas for improvement.

“Bigger teams can bring their own range of problems,” he says. “It’s important nobody gets the pick of the jobs or, likewise, that the more mundane tasks are left to the same few.”

A production bonus based on piglet sales at each weaning is paid at the same rate to each team member and Rob works alongside everyone as often as possible.

WhatsApp groups are used to include staff and empower them to voice their opinions.

The farm engages with AHDB trial work and media content and helps support the RSPCA Assured scheme with an open-door policy and knowledge exchange.

Rob is frequently featured in positive industry print press and radio content and tweets as @robonthefarm.

The other finalists were:

• Richard Cross, Oxton Estate, Nottinghamshire
• Michael Kavanagh, Church Farm, Shropshire