Pig farmers say that they are 'so very relieved' to hear that the government has agreed to new measures to address culls and 150,000 animals backed up on farms.

Last night (October 14) the government announced that it will extend pork processing hours, develop a storage scheme for meat and offer up to 800 temporary visas for butchers.

Animals will now be allowed to be processed on Saturdays and longer working days will be allowed to mitigate the shortage of abattoir staff.

The government will also fund a private storage aid scheme in England which will enable meat processors to store slaughtered pigs for three to six months so that they can be preserved safely and processed at a later date.

The National Pig Association said: "We are so very relieved that the government has finally released some measures aimed at reducing the significant pig backlog on farms.

"We are working with the processors to understand the impact of these new measures and to determine exactly what will happen now, and how quickly, so that we can give pig farmers some hope and stem the flow of healthy pigs currently having to be culled on farms."

A pork levy holiday has also been announced. This will suspend payments of the levy pig farmers and producers are required to pay for November 2021.

This will amount to savings for the sector of just under £1 million.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) took the decision in response to the continued build-up of pigs on farm, falling prices and high production costs.

Until December 31 up to 800 pork butchers will be eligible to apply for visas from the existing allocation in the Seasonal Workers Pilot Scheme, allowing them to travel and work in the UK for a period of six months.

In return the government says that it "expects the pork sector to encourage better training offers, career options and wage increases to ensure that the sector draws on the large domestic labour pool in the UK, as well as investing in technology across the industry."