Jamie Wyllie, a second-generation pig producer in Scotland, has made the decision to close his last pig unit. All pigs will be gone from the 850-sow unit by February 2027.
This is the third unit he will have closed in three years. “Three years ago, we lost a bucket load of money, and I decided to close two units then – one with 650 sows and the other with 900 – with the hope of focusing harder on the one site that I would have left,” Jamie said.
“But the market has just completely collapsed once again, and the business is going through change. I’ve made five staff redundant, and it all becomes quite sad and blurred after a while.”
Jamie, who has represented the sector as chair of NFU Scotland’s pigs committee, predicted that the industry will recover and become buoyant again, but the big question for him was how long that will take to happen, and how much more money lost it would have taken to get to that point.
“I said to myself after the last time, I’m not doing it again,” Jamie said. “If the time between the two downturns had been longer, I would have forgotten what I said to myself and probably have stuck it out, but it was only three years ago.”
50 years in pig farming
Jamie’s father built the business up over many years, with the first shed constructed in the 1970s. “My father tells me that back in the 70s, it was a different world, and that this is not the market he operated in.
“He says he enjoyed producing pigs, but with all the bureaucracy and red tape and the fear of animal activist breaches, it’s not the environment he worked in.”
Jamie came into the business in 2008 and has seen three downturns of note. “The first one saw us lose money, but we stuck at it and made it back again. The next one during Covid was bad, but this has been worse, and we could not get back to where we were before,” he said.
“My mental health suffered from it last time. You can’t sit and watch your bank balance going down by £100,000 a month, every month, and it not have some impact on you – the decisions we have taken are difficult.”
Once the pigs leave in February, that will be his last breeding herd. “I’ve actually retained three full-time staff members that work for me in pigs with the plan to buy weaners and finish them,” Jamie said.
In a perfect world, he will work with a weaner producer to buy and finish their pigs, while he has also already started conversations with weaner producers.
“There are people looking for weaner buyers,” he added.
Stand together
Jamie is fully aware that other pig farmers are considering their futures and he is keen to offer some advice. “Do what is right for you,” he said. “Focus on yourself and your family and do what’s right for you.
“If it’s right to stay in it, then do that, and good on you. If it’s not right because you feel like you’re changing and you’re not the person that you were, then have a hard think about why.
“It is a very challenging time, and the squeeze really predominantly is on independent producers. To me, it just shows how important it is that we stand together and unite behind our cooperatives, whether it’s United Pig Co-operative, Meadow Quality or Yorkshire Farmers.
“We need to stick together, so we don’t get picked off one by one by the processors. Once these marketing groups are gone, there will be nobody working for the independent producer anymore, and independent producers could get taken complete advantage of. It’s so important that these marketing groups stay alive, are supported and allowed to thrive.”
