Some 52% of pig farmers who responded to the survey say they are cutting down on pig numbers in order to combat increasing farm input costs.

Twenty-six pig farmers responded to the survey.

There are an estimated 1.6m pigs in Ireland, including 149,900 breeding sows, across 290 commercial farms, according to Teagasc.

A total of 45% of those surveyed said they have already stopped serving sows to reduce numbers and more than a quarter (26%) say they plan on exiting the sector altogether this year.

If this 26% were to be applied to the total number of pig farmers in the country, it would equate to 75 of Ireland’s 290 commercial pig farmers walking away from the sector in 2022.

The reasons behind this drop in production include rising feed and energy costs. Some 61% of pig farmers say their feed costs have increased by more than 50% this year with 9% saying this has more than doubled.

Thirty-nine per cent of pig farmers have seen their energy costs increase by 50% or more this year with 4% saying they have more than doubled since 2021.