Farmer Andrew Brown is fuming after he had piglets stolen for the second time in a few months.

And last year he had 4,000 litres of diesel stolen.

On Monday Mr Brown, who farms pigs and arable at Hill Barn Farm near Bishops Cannings, found 50 piglets had been stolen.

They had been at his farm buildings since April 7 among a pen of 300 piglets and this week they were due to be sent to an abattoir. The value of the stolen piglets is estimated to be between £4,000 and £5,000.

Mr Brown also had more than 30 piglets stolen a couple of months ago.

He said: “They are getting bolder and I hate to say it but it has to be another farmer.

“The piglets are quite a heavy weight and you would need to have a lorry to transport them. How they kept the piglets quiet when they were stealing them I don’t know because we have a chap who lives on the site with dogs.

“We can’t understand how we didn’t hear them.”

Mr Brown buys and sells piglets and has about 1,800. The meat from the piglets goes to supermarket company Waitrose.

He has been farming pigs for 12 years and arable for 40 years and has been at Hill Barn Farm, off the road to Blacklands and Calne, for more than 30 years.

He said: “We have considered not keeping pigs as a result of the thefts. I have heard of similar thefts across the country.

“It’s being done purely for money, pig prices are higher at the moment. We have put in place additional security and we have cameras. We have given footage from the cameras to the police.”

Inspector Matt Armstrong, of Devizes Police, said: “Piglets were delivered to the Hill Barn buildings at Manor Farm on April 7 but when they were collected and counted on May 27 there were 50 missing.

"A vehicle would have been required to remove them and we are asking anyone who saw anything suspicious between these dates to contact us on the 101 number.”