Rare breed Tamworth pigs – from AI to pork

It’s been quite a journey from carrying out the AI on Sissy back in September 2016 right through to selling the pork produced. This wasn’t the first time I’d done AI on our Tamworth sows and the previous attempts had all been successful so the pressure was on to maintain the 100% success rate.

There have been a succession of big events from the AI in September 2016 to the farrowing in mid-January 2017 then on to weaning the litter in early March 2017 and taking the first two to slaughter in August 2017.

Sissy and piglets at 2 days old
Sissy and piglets at 2 days old

Although there were only 6 surviving from this litter, the smaller number meant that each one was likely to do better as a result of the reduced competition for milk. In the end we sold two of these as weaners at 8 weeks old and that helped to keep our overall pig numbers at a manageable level for a time.

The other main concern was to spread out the trips to the abattoir so that we didn’t end up with lots of pork turning up all at the same time. The first two weaners went off in mid-August and the last two are currently scheduled to go early in October.

Loading went smoothly
Loading went smoothly

The planning for this next batch has been crucial because we will have our first Dexter steer going to slaughter in early November as well and our available freezer space becomes more limited at this time of year.

We’ve been very fortunate to have quite a few new customers for this first batch of pork and the preparations before sending the pigs to slaughter have worked well so far. There have been some great comments from satisfied customers and the next batch of pork will hopefully prove to be just as popular.


One benefit of delaying the departure of the last two weaners from this litter is that we hope to produce some bacon. I’ve done this in the past just for our own consumption at home and I’ve always been very impressed with the way it’s turned out. However to get the best results you need to start with a larger pig to get decent sized cuts from the loin for back bacon.

Another lesson learned from the first batch of pork was that sausages are always a popular choice but, surprisingly to me, the plainer flavours (Traditional, Pork and Leek etc.) are still the most popular. We had some packs of Moroccan and Sweet Chilli flavoured sausages made and these have sold pretty well but we still sold out of the Traditional flavour first!

This time around we will be trying out a different abattoir and getting the carcasses processed by the local village butcher. In the spirit of reducing food miles, this means that the pork will be from pigs that have been conceived, born, raised and butchered in a 1 mile radius of our village.

I’m curious to see the results of this alternate approach but we definitely need an alternative option for the future if we are ever unable to use the original abattoir for any reason.

Bringing in our own hay

It seems a long time ago now but it was only just over a week ago (Sunday 27 August) when our hay field was cut. A little late in the year compared to others perhaps but we got lucky with a spell of good weather and in the end the timing suited us perfectly.

In past years this field has been made into large round bales which were then taken away because we can’t use them without the heavy machinery to handle them. This year we asked a neighbour to cut and bale the field into small bales for us so that we can feed the Dexters on our own hay this winter.

We have been managing winter feeding for the cows by getting large bales one at a time from a neighbour and storing them in the barn. We could take out as much as the cows needed each day and they worked their way through each large bale over the course of 10-12 days.

This particular field had been deliberately left empty since early June and had grown well over the past few months. We watched the proceedings with much more interest this year because the results really mattered this time around.

Freshly cut field
Freshly cut field

After a week of watching the cut grass dry out and keeping a wary eye on the ever-changing weather forecast, it was quite a sight when the baler arrived last Saturday (2 Sept). Once the small baler got going the bales just kept on appearing and with our limited equipment it wasn’t possible to keep up.

Luckily the weather was excellent so it was just a question of getting the job done no matter how long it took. In the end this was quite some time and it was lucky that the moon was bright that weekend because bales were still being shifted after 9pm on the Saturday night!

Bringing in the bales
Bringing in the bales

By the following afternoon – and with the life saving help of some neighbours and his tractor – the last bales were safely stored. In fact just about every outbuilding now has some hay in it which smells wonderful but limits the options if we need to store anything else!

They might be called small bales but that’s just a relative term. After a weekend of shifting nearly 400 bales I was quite glad to get back to work at the day job for a rest!

Starting to fill up the main barn
Starting to fill up the main barn

After all the work it’s a strange sight now but I know that in no time at all the grass will be growing again and it will be back to a normal green field

All done
All done