Farmer Focus: Wet weather challenge to outdoor pig units

The weather continues to challenge us on the outdoor unit, but I have to remind myself that we are lucky. I can’t begin to imagine what it’s like for all the flood victims.

My sister, Vicky, and I went down to Norfolk this week to have a look at some outdoor Rattlerow units.

They don’t seem to have had the rain we have had and their fields look in fantastic condition, as do the stock.

We are not performing at our optimum on the outdoor unit, however, we are learning all the time and visiting different units is helping.

It’s good to see different ways in which we can improve production.

Back indoors, the finishing pigs are performing well.

Again the weather has caused the odd outbreak of meningitis, but we have some great third-party farmers who are on the phone to us as soon as anything happens, which means we can get on top of it before it hits hard.

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The quality of weaners coming out of the indoor system keeps on improving, which makes my job on the finishing side a little easier.

A good start always continues through to finish and we see less variation in the yards, which helps on our grading.

Clearing yards out in a set number of weeks is vital.

The yards need to be empty, washed out and ready to refill on set dates as I plan where weaned pigs are going a year in advance.

Slow-growing pigs don’t only cause a problem in terms of numbers slaughtered each week, but can cause havoc to my plan for weaned piglets.

Filling yards up is like a jigsaw and one wrong piece can have an impact on whether we have to sell pigs lighter to create space, which has a massive impact on margins or lack of.

Kate Morgan and family farm 1,700 sows indoors in East Yorkshire and 1,200 outdoor in North Yorkshire, taking all the progeny through to slaughter. 2012 Nuffield Scholar.