PIGS (OUTDOOR), NORFOLK: Rob manages breeding sows for a company that has sites across Norfolk. The sows live outdoors in large grass paddocks, and their offspring are raised there by their mothers until they reach around ten kilos.

Rob has been interested in farm animals since a boy, inspired by his father who was an agriculturalist, working for what was then the Ministry of Agriculture. At home they kept poultry, goats and rabbits. Rob did a three-year diploma in Agriculture and Horticulture at the County College in Lancashire, then widened his farming experience by working on various mixed farms in the UK and Australia.

Outdoor pigs and their welfare are what Rob has always been passionate about. Alongside his job managing the pigs on various sites, he works as a part-time advisor, which involves sharing his knowledge and experience with other producers within the pig industry. “I enjoy the challenge of creating positive changes which I can then take pleasure in observing and sharing,” he says.

He's encouraged by the massive changes in the way sows are now managed, thanks to improvements in equipment design such as shelters, drinking and feeding systems. “Agriculture can be slow to change – some of these are things I was developing thirty years ago,” says Rob. “But it’s good to see that welfare is improving hand in hand with performance.”

Rob is working with LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) and Reading University to see how outdoor pig producers can reduce their impact on their environment, and farm in a nature-friendly way. The farms he manages practice “paddock flipping” whereby pigs are moved regularly to reduce soil compaction and so increase the number of birds and insects.

On the downside, Rob is concerned about what he sees as the unfairness of some producer contracts. “This drives people to desperation and in many cases out of farming for ever.”