‘It’s absolutely dire’: why UK chicken farmers want to call it a day
James Mottershead’s family has been in the chicken farming business for two decades, but nothing compares with the current situation. “Absolutely dire,” is his summary.
Based in Shropshire and operating from six vast sheds that churn out 1.3m chickens a year, the business has been hit by a cocktail of pressures.
Soaring costs of feed, energy and packaging outstrip the price many farmers are paid for their birds. The threat of avian flu is ever-present. Cheaper imports and the rise of meat-free alternatives have added another wave of pressure.
Versatile and relatively affordable, chicken is the UK’s most popular meat, with the level of consumption far outstripping beef, lamb or pork.
But these challenges are pushing many domestic producers to reduce the size of their flocks, while others weigh up whether to continue at all.
Mottershead’s family has been producing broiler chickens – young birds grown for meat – since expanding beyond arable and sheep farming in 2001.
The latest batch of 205,000 chickens is now almost fully grown, destined for the shelves of the nation’s largest supermarkets and smaller grocery stores in just over a week’s time.
Many producers are in a “really, really terrible position” and are making a loss on each bird, says Mottershead, who as chair of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) poultry board represents many of England and Wales’s chicken and turkey farmers.
“It’s getting to the stage where these producers will have no option but to shut the doors and stop producing chickens until things like energy start getting back into a better position and they’re not locked into a contract, with high energy costs,” he says.
“Once you are locked into a contract you have to honour it.”
He and his fellow producers are
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