When we started on our pig breeding journey, we only had sows from the Maple bloodline. This was mostly because that was what the breeder had at the time and we were just starting out so we needed to find our feet first. This worked well for us but as the original 2 got older …
As part of a longer term plan to increase the number of female bloodlines, we sadly had to part with Fifi to make room for new breeding stock. However as it turned out, we were able to find an excellent new home for her and also 2 gilts from her most recent litter. Thankfully loading …
We had been a house of cats for sometime with 3 of them after moving here and adopting a cat along with the new house. However over recent months the cat numbers had sadly been dwindling and by June this year we were back to having no household pets While this was obviously quite a …
I never like the idea of talking about important events before they’ve happened and you’re sure how they will turn out. This definitely applies to our sows when they farrow because there are a multitude of things which could go wrong if you stop to think of the worst. Although I make sure our sows …
I’ve now established a fairly reliable procedure to follow in the run-up to farrowing which seems to work for me and more importantly seems to suit the pigs too! About 5-7 days before the due date, the expectant mother is moved into the farrowing shed – a fancy sounding name but in reality a stone …
At the end of May 2021 we reached the 8 year anniversary of moving from a previous suburban semi-detached life to our rural 15 acre smallholding in the North Pennines. On one level we are now so settled here that this is just another anniversary and no big deal really. However when I take the …
Continue reading ‘The 8th anniversary and another successful calving’ »
After a number of unsuccessful attempts at artificial insemination with the pigs earlier in the year, we decided to try natural service instead and we borrowed a Tamworth boar for a few months. When he arrived we quickly found that he was very relaxed and easy to work with, so that was one big worry …
In our area, there is a 4 year regime for cattle TB testing as a result of the generally low incidence of the disease here. It’s still a theoretical possibility that they might test positive but it’s fairly unlikely. When our Dexters had their first ever bovine TB test in Dec 2016/Jan 2017, the event …
On Friday morning we awoke to find a couple of inches of snow had fallen and settled too which was a slight surprise. It wasn’t quite cold enough for it to stay though and it rained occasionally for most of the day so everything turned first to mush then fairly quickly into mud For most …
Despite working from home for the last 6 months and hardly ever leaving our holding, it seems to have been impossible to find the time for a blog update. There are always a number of other tasks that seem to be more important or an unexpected event happens which throws any plans that had been …