WITH pigs now largely sold by the deadweight system, vendors are having to travel considerable distances to buy animals.
The 60 pigs on offer at Hereford Market recently drew buyers from Aberdare, Cardiff, Newport and Chepstow and the animals sold for very good prices.
Weaners, for instances, met a tremendous trade, four to eight-week animals selling from £26 to £37.
"With other markets having closed, numbers are improving at Hereford," said auctioneer Richard Hyde.
"It has been the Welsh border area that has been particularly good at keeping the market open.
"Like dairy cattle, pig-keeping has waned. There was a time when there were thousand of pigs for sale and, of course, we would like to see numbers increase. But many producers have either gone out of pigs, have contracts with companies buying their animals or sell them through the deadweight system."
At the market, small porkers sold to £42, gilts to £88, sows to £80 and boars to £65.
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