UK Pigmeat production in September reached its highest total for the month since 1999, with meat output for the year to date running nearly 3% up on 2013, according to BPEX.
Based on the latest Defra figures, there was a 4% increase in clean pig slaughterings in September, taking the monthly total to 821,900, the highest since 2001. Â However, with clean pig carcase weights reaching a record high at 81.7kg, the month’s pigmeat production was the biggest for 15 years.
The increases were largely based in England and Wales, with Northern Ireland showing 1% more pigs entering abattoirs while slaughterings in Scotland remained virtually unchanged from a year earlier.
The rise in September production took total UK slaughterings for the first nine months of 2014 to 7.53 million head, 1% above last year’s level. Given the increase in carcase weights, however, pigmeat output for the year to date rose to 633,800 tonnes, nearly 3% up on the same period in 2013.