Pigs & Poultry

Our British Lop Pigs.

We bought our first lops because we wanted to help the rarest of our traditional pig breeds. Our first two gilts made their mark in two quite different ways. The first qualified for the Pig of The Year competition at her first show. The second starred in the Miss Potter film with her litter. However, it was the other qualities of the breed that hooked us.

• They are docile mothers and tend to be very careful with their piglets.
• They produce and rear good numbers of pigs.
• They don’t tend to get too heavy and go off their legs.
• They produce fine grained, lean pork without the need of expensive growing and finishing rations.

It is really important to us to keep Lops that meet the breed standard.

Our Ashgyhll herd was founded with Harmony gilts crossed with a General boar. The gilts were purchased from the top of a cold and windy hill in Lancashire and needed some TLC. The boar came from Frank Miller, secretary of the Lop Society. He was a very traditional shape. Between them they produced some nice gilts, the first to be registered under the Ashghyll prefix. The following year Ashghyll Harmony 4 was Supreme Champion at the Cheshire Show. We still have this sow and some of her offspring. This year we purchased gilts from the Actress and Mary lines. We have a senior boar from the Duke line and a younger Cornishman.

Our Hampshire Pigs.

Hampshires are a modern breed of pig that are very common in America but like the Lops are only bred by a small number of breeders in this country. In America they are found in a variety of colours but here we recognise black pigs with a white saddle. They are distinguishable from the Saddleback by their leaner, modern shape and their prick ears.

We have an Anna sow who has just reared her first litter. We have found her to be a quiet mother with plenty of milk – we have yet to try the pork!

The biggest difference between the Lops and the Hampshires, we have found, is it that having prick ears means you can see more and so they tend to go further in the field!

We have just registered gilts from the first litter and have picked our show gilt for next season!

Our Other Pigs.

My son has always liked the Large Black pigs and acquired a runt whilst we were buying Gloucesters. His first pig “Libby” was carted around in the trailer of his toy tractor set and later he won Westmorland Young Handlers competition with her. He now has her daughter “Mandy” whom we cross with the Lop boar. She is a brilliant mum and the crossed weaners make good porkers.