No matter how specific an abattoir's requirement, and no matter how many different incentives are offered to pig producers to encourage them to send in a particular sort of carcase, the bottom line is that pigs do not come like nuts and bolts.

Variable factors such as genetic make–up, nutrition, production system, feeding regime, environment and disease status all combine to result in decreasing the uniformity of the carcases found inside the chillers of UK abattoirs. This variation not only occurs in carcases from different units but also between carcases produced on the same unit, and it’s not uncommon to find a wide spread of carcase weights, lengths and fat deposition within one batch of pigs.

This lack of uniformity provides a headache for all pig processors for the sole reason that, over the years, their customers have become a lot more specific with their meat requirement. For example, several years ago a third party processor would buy 500 loins of pork at a premium price for pork chop production.