UK pig throughputs and pigmeat production are still running above last year's levels while the number of sows sent to slaughter is rising as producers trim herds, according to Defra's latest monthly estimates summarised by AHDB.

Clean pig slaughterings in August were 844,000 head, 2.2% more than in August 2025, and pigmeat production rose 3.8% to 79,000 tonnes. The average weekly kill of 191,000 head was up from 186,000 a year earlier but down from 205,000 in July. Over the first eight months of the year slaughterings were up 2.9% to just over 7 million head.

The picture varies by nation: England's clean kill of 5.6 million head was 4.1% higher year on year and Scotland's 158,000 head 5.6% higher, while Northern Ireland's 1.27 million was 2.1% lower. Pigmeat production for the year to August is up 4.9% at 670,000 tonnes, helped by carcase weights that averaged just under 90 kg in August.

Sow and boar slaughterings were 18,000 head in August, 21% more than a year earlier, as producers respond to oversupply and the contract terminations that have disrupted the market this year. Over eight months they are up 9.7% to 143,000 head — 5.8% higher in England at 126,000 and 51% higher in Scotland at 17,000, with no figure for Northern Ireland.

Heavier carcases and a bigger kill are adding pigmeat to a market already short of demand, which is why the herd reduction visible in the sow figures is expected to continue into the autumn.

Source: Pig World