Northern Ireland pig farmers warn of cull over processing backlog

Pig farmers in Northern Ireland fear they may have to start culling their animals because of labour shortages and a potential lack of carbon dioxide.

The president of the Ulster Farmers Union warned that the situation was "precarious".

Victor Chestnutt said Northern Ireland pig farmers were "simply running out of room" for their livestock.

Carbon dioxide is used to stun animals in abattoirs before they are slaughtered.

But some CO2 suppliers have halted production due to rising energy costs.

• How could the CO2 shortage hit food supplies?

Mr Chestnutt warned that in Northern Ireland a gas crisis combined with a shortage of labour in abattoirs could lead to "huge problems" for farmers.

He said some pig farms were already being forced to keep more animals that should have been slaughtered.

Speaking to BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster programme, Mr Chestnutt said some abattoirs had only enough CO2 supply for between seven and 10 days.

"They don't know whether they can change suppliers after that," he said.

"It is coming down the line at us, on top of a labour crisis that has caused a back-up of pigs on farms."

He said some of abattoirs were cancelling 25% of their pig slaughtering and pig farmers were "simply running out of room".

Ulster Farmers Union president Victor Chestnutt said he hoped it would not come to culling animals on farms

"There are pigs at the minute in cattle housing, there are pigs in sheep housing, we are approaching the winter where those houses will be needed for those other animals.

"We need to somehow get up on that backlog that is vastly growing. We do not need this carbon dioxide crisis on top of the labour issue or we will be in huge problems on our farms.

"That is a very precarious position to be in."

Mr Chestnutt added: "I hope we don't come into a situation where we have to humanely destroy animals on farm.

"To me, it's such a waste of good food in a time when we have a hungry world to feed."

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• Why are gas prices rising and what if my supplier goes bust?

• How could the CO2 shortage hit food supplies?

The UFU president reassured the public that they would not run out of food.

But he said the CO2 shortage meant that the shelf life of some foods would be shortened if the gas supply remained limited.

Farmer Norman Robson said the crisis for farmers is linked to a shortage in labour at processing plants

Norman Robson, who farms pigs in County Antrim and sits on the UFU pig farmers committee and the Ulster Pork and Bacon Forum, said: "It's a crisis already, before even CO2 was mentioned, there was a crisis."

Mr Robson said this was down to a severe labour shortage in the processing sector, which was already resulting in a major backlog of pigs on farms.

"Two weeks ago, we were completely bunged up, we had no space, we didn't know where to turn," he said.

"We're looking after the pigs to the best of our ability, giving them as much space as we can. But you eventually run out of room. Every farmer is in the same boat."

He said that a recent meeting of the Ulster Pork and Bacon Forum on labour shortages in the factories was "very depressing".

"It's as big a crisis as I've ever seen in the pig industry. This is something that has the potential to finish the pig industry in Northern Ireland," he said.

Asked whether the processing backlog could mean having to kill pigs on the farm, he said "Nobody would ever want to see a cull of healthy animals that are fit to go into the food chain. It would be the last resort.

"It wouldn't sit easy with me or with any other farmer."