Pigs & Poultry

Finally, we have had some decent rainfall. It has been incredibly dry and we were looking in danger of becoming the Lake District without lakes.  As June progressed even the larger rivers were beginning to dry up. Many farmers have been carrying water to their stock as the smaller becks had long dried up. Families in our village with private supplies have been watching every drop. When we think back to the major flooding in November it is unbelievable to think our reservoirs are running low.

The waterfowl have not had much water to splash in but made the most of the down pours. We have had a good hatching of ducks but the geese have been disappointing. The early ducks are a good size and we are now able to sex the ducks and drakes. For those of you who don’t know the ducks are the ones that quack. I have to say not everyone believes you when you tell them this!

It has been busy time farrowing, with two litters of British Lops and a cross bred litter to the Large Black sow. We are thinking next time we will use the Large Black boar standing at AI and have another pure bred litter of Large Blacks.

Some of the Hampshire litter have gone off to their new home. A fantastic location in the Patterdale Valley where once they are accustomed to their new owners they will have a huge enclosure to root up. We are getting used to the notching system but just to be sure had a large piece of paper with ears drawn on and a mark where the notches were to go!

In June we went to the Cheshire Show with three British Lops, a young boar and gilt and a sow. We were very pleased with two firsts and a second plus two Reserve Breed Champion with the British Lop boar and the Hampshire gilt. Next it was the Great Yorkshire. The number of entries was up probably due to the demise of the Royal and the rain managed to keep off until later in the day. The British Lops were well represented but despite four exhibitors the Hampshires were put with the Any Other Modern breeds.  We don’t have a show now until the Westmorland County in September.

There has been a lot of interest in the pig keeping courses. We have had leaflets at most of the major Northern shows. We have a new website for the courses, so take a look – www.pigkeepingcourses.co.uk.