Third-generation Midhirst pig farmer Eugene O'Sullivan is getting out, selling off his stock as weaners to shut his gate by Christmas.
Soaring feed costs, rising pig imports, the low national pig price and high Kiwi dollar, are putting increasing pressure on pig farmers' profit margins. And with the chance of stock being infected by the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), Eugene says the writing is on the wall.
"It is no one's fault really. It is just how things are," he says.
Neither is he the first to feel the pinch. A number of local farmers have already sold up.
Pig feed, chiefly wheat and soya, has increased in price by about a quarter following the heat wave and drought in the US. Pork is also increasingly being sourced from overseas producers, with around 50 per cent of the pork consumed in New Zealand imported.
"If the (Kiwi) dollar is low, they (wholesalers) turn to the locals for bacon, but if it is high, they import."
He says the situation can change rapidly should the Kiwi stabilise at around 70c US, but
"it is getting to the situation now how much the bank will back you".
He says if he took his pigs through to bacon he would need to buy in expensive feed and not knowing what price he will get for his pigs at Christmas, he decided to sell them now as weaners.
"The industry has its ups and downs, and downturns in the past have been followed by good upswings. But, in the last five years, that has not happened. I just cannot see it changing."
His grandfather, Arthur O'Sullivan, first bought the property in 1945, carried on by Eugene's dad Gerard. Eugene came to the farm straight after school, and made the move to an indoors piggery better suited to Taranaki's climate.
Meadowvale Stud Farms once ran 2000 pigs, with 220 sows. Now there are five females with the last piglets being weaned.
It is not all doom and gloom though. Eugene says he is looking forward to a break from farming with his wife Julie and kids Renee (17), Ryan (15) and Lauren (13).
"You can be more efficient, but you will need quite a bit more investment. I have done the hard yakka. It is time."