The last of Peter Mortimer's pig herd left the farm in March. The decision to sell followed a traumatic few months during which prices plummeted to below the cost of producing them.

Suffolk's livestock industry has been beset with crises this year - from a major bird flu crisis to a massive pig price slump. As a result, Graham Miles, the county's agricultural chaplain, has had a busy year.

Farmers have been phoning him with a variety of problems from loneliness, depression and anxiety to suicidal thoughts. He and Suffolk's Bishop Martin Seeley visited Peter Mortimer's farm in June to get a sense of the sort of problems the pig industry is facing.

Now aged 74 - and despite the deep crisis within the industry as pig herds across Europe are cut to a fraction of their previous size - north Suffolk farmer Peter is a happy man.

He has decided to carry on farming. However, this time around the Metfield farmer is providing a bed-and-breakfast service for another pig operation - Peddars Pigs in south Norfolk - lifting a huge weight from his shoulders.

"I must be a glutton for punishment," he admits, but adds that he couldn't be without a pig on the farm.

As well as looking after a 1700-strong herd, he is also working on buildings to help accommodate them as numbers could grow to up to 1999. It sounds like a major undertaking, but it's very different to the financial stress of running his own operation, he explains.

"It's first time in 50 years I have got a guaranteed income," he says.

Working for someone else after 50 years of working for himself was a big adjustment, he admits - as was walking around the pig rings at the Suffolk Show this year without showing his own prized animals.

From January through to March he estimates that pig farmers were losing up to £50 a pig. "I got out before that so I had the great escape," he says. "I would have been under the table financially if I had not done it."

Many are leaving the industry altogether. "There's quite a number getting out around here," he says. "Every pig farmer in the country is not in a good place but it's gradually getting better." Feed prices rocketed from about £240/t in January to £420/t in March although they did drop to around £400/t more recently, he explains.

Anglican bishop for St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Martin Seeley and Graham Miles - rural agricultural chaplain for Suffolk and the county's Farming Community Network (FCN) co-ordinator - say the plight of the livestock industry is causing much mental anguish among farmers.

In the past few months, these have formed the bulk of Graham's work and he and Bishop Martin are pulling together a team to help cope with strong demand for pastoral support.

Although Graham's patch is Suffolk, farmers in crisis from Somerset to Scotland have phoned him - sometimes in the middle of the night.

Pig farmers have been among the worst hit - along with poultry farmers whose livelihoods have been affected by the recent bird flu crisis in Suffolk.

"My role has really grown in Suffolk and one of the tasks we are trying to do now is build up a team because obviously Suffolk is a big county," says Graham. "My patch is Suffolk but if someone phones me up from outside the county I don't say I can't take you. I get a lot of support from Bishop Martin."

Companies including Savills Ipswich and Ernest Doe Power in Sudbury have lent their support.

The return of the county's agricultural shows this year has been a boon, as many farmers feel isolated due to shrinking workforces, he says.

"Markets used to be the place where farmers would meet up and have a chat so it becomes a lonely life and farms have cut down on staff there's not that many people working on a farm to talk to," he says.

"I have farmworkers where farms are making cutbacks and they are in tied cottages so they are not just losing their job but also their home. So there are many aspects to this. We can't just wave a magic wand and mainly I just listen."

Bishop Martin says Graham is doing a "brilliant" job. "He's got out there and people are beginning to know him. One person can't do this on their own so we are getting a network out there," he says. "So many farmers are on their own - particularly elderly farmers distressed about what's going on in terms of costs."

He adds: "I think so many farmers are facing huge challenges with costs, the challenges around abattoirs not being able to take animals - particularly pigs - when they reach the right weight and then you have the changes in government policy."

Farmers need the right support - and a firm policy on UK food security would help, he suggests. "You would hope that the terrible situation in the Ukraine is making people realise that we really need to be much more food secure than we are and that means providing the right support for farmers to provide the food that we need."