The gap between the best and worst performing pig farms in England fell by £30,500 in 2016, a drop of 14 per cent according to The Farm Business Survey.

The survey, released in the annual Pig Production in England report, showed that 25 per cent of farms in the performance category earned an average of £122,200 per farm in 2016.

In comparison, the worst performing category lost £59,800, and the average pig farm income was £21,600.

Rachel Lawrence from the Farm Business Survey explains that "although there is a huge difference remaining between the best and worst performing farms in the sector, that difference is getting smaller.”

Producers across the performance categories battled with falling pig prices and rising costs.

Figures show that incomes fell by an average of 56 per cent in 2016, with some of the top performing farm businesses being hit hardest.

Farms in the top performance group saw turnover from pig sales drop 37 per cent, whilst pig output from the lower performance groups actually increased.

Rachel said: "This reflects more the nature of our sample; independent producers are a lot more exposed to fluctuations in the pig market than those who are contract rearing or finishing.

"The falling pig price in 2016 hit those farms selling direct into the market hardest.

"The impact would actually have been more severe, if many businesses hadn’t increased throughput through the year, pig numbers rose over 2 per cent last year, despite the falling prices.”

The bill for wages and salaries totalled 12 per cent of pig farm output in 2016/17, an increase of 26 per cent on the previous year.

Farms at opposite ends of the performance spectrum saw higher wage bills eating into profits, totalling 12 per cent of top performing farm output and 14 per cent of the lowest performing group’s financial turnover.

Pig producers continue to increase farm income from diversification, as last year nine per cent of output on pig farms was from diversified activities, a four per cent increase on the previous year, and two per cent higher than the average farm business.

Rachel said: "Diversification is constantly being recommended as a means of preparing your business for the future, and that certainly seems to be the case on pig farms, where non-agricultural turnover is becoming an increasingly important source of income.”