Five weaners gone now

Another two Berkshire weaners from Daisy’s litter have just left for their new home, so that’s five gone with two more due to go to Skye and two remaining with us.

In some ways it was a very good litter—with eight large weaners out of the nine and three excellent gilts suitable for breeding—but it was also disappointing as we didn’t get the top-notch breeding boar we’d hoped for.

There was a boar that showed a lot of promise, but between four and 10 weeks he started growing patches of white hair where a pedigree boar should not have them, along his flanks and on his chest.As a result, he’s one of the two that left today.

We have kept the next best boar and will breed from him as we need a boar from a different line to Graham but, while he’s good, he’s not excellent.

If we lived closer to other Berkshire breeders he would have gone and we’d have bought another one, but as it is he gets a reprieve.

We have kept the best gilt for us, with two others also being registered in the herd book.

One of those has already gone to Peterhead to join another pedigree Berkshire while the remaining one is supposed to go to Skye along with a birth-notified gilt for fattening.

I say supposed to as the sale is looking increasingly problematic and I’m still waiting for the prospective buyer to get back to me to organise collection.

As I budget to have the weaners up to 10 weeks, delays like this cost us money.

If they buyer does collect, I’ll be charging them food and lodging for the pigs starting tomorrow.

If they don’t collect, I think I’ll fatten them and sell their pork around July. We won’t need any meat ourselves then but the Other Half is reasonably confident she can find four people to buy half a pig each.

(You’d think it would be straightforward to find buyers when we charge £100, rising to £120 by July, for half a pig with at least 20kg of pork while English producers charge £150-180 a half. But, people up here either want cheap meat or the cachet of a trendy branded box being delivered and seen by their neighbours.)

Finally, a big thanks to Dave from Argyll, who collected a pair of boars during the week.

Dave, who found us via the Hilux Surf forum, insisted on paying more for his weaners when he realised we’d be making a loss as feed prices had risen since we agreed the price of the pigs.

I’m quite prepared to accept a loss when events like this happen as an agreed price is an agreed price, but it was pleasing to find someone who’s prepared to pay the real price of livestock.