Pigs
Details of our pedigree Berkshires can be found in the British Pig Association’s herd book. Click on the breed code BK and type our herd identifier (JDY) into either the breeder or owner boxes.
Details of birth-notified Berkshire weaners that may be for sale can be found on the BPA’s pig search page. Set the breed to Berkshire, the region to Scotland, the county to none and the age range to “weaners 0-14 weeks”.
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Berkshire weaners for sale (available 17/18 May 200 
Delilah and her piglets move outside
All doing well (Delilah’s March 2008 litter)
Another one (Delilah’s farrowing continues)
Delilah farrowing (13 March 200
Delilah moves in to the farrowing pen
Is Waitrose Berkshire pork what it claims to be?
Private slaughter outside an abattoir
“I’ll have that!” (short video of two Berkshires)
Daisy farrows (2 January 200
Moving pigs around the fields, part 2
Moving pigs around the fields, part 1
Piglets for sale, ready New Year 2008
Dolores farrows (13 November 2007)
Six of Delilah’s weaners move to pastures new
Almost time to leave - Delilah’s litter change to dry feed
Midwife at a difficult birth - Doris farrows
Delilah’s weaners back on sale again
No, I won’t sell piglets for £10 each
Daisy joins the herd in the field
Delilah’s litter available for sale (All sold)
My pig is farrowing, what do I do?
Delilah and her litter of Berkshires move outside
Vet needed to treat lame piglet
Rocket, a Berkshire porker, goes to slaugher
Berkshire piglets at two days old
Delilah starts farrowing (4 September 2007)
Delilah brought into the byre for farrowing
Rush to get a porker booked for slaughter
We’re offered a champion boar, but…
Training for Scottish would-be pig keepers
Delilah grows too big for the farrowing arc
Getting the bio-security message across
Walkers need to be more responsible on livestock farms
Delilah approaches her earliest farrowing date
Feeding pigsDolores’s pregnancy turns out to be a phantom one
Three Berkshire weaners remaining to be sold
An animal welfare officer does an inspection
Pigs move out to their summer quarters
Doris’s litter of Berkshires move outside
Transporting weaners in the family car
Pig identification in Scotland
A litter of Berkshire/Tamworth crosses
Moving a litter from the rearing pen to their outside pen
Moving piglets from the farrowing pen to the rearing pen
New home needed for our Tamworth boar
Our first litter of piglets - Tamworth/Berkshire crosses
From pig to pork chop - a Saddleback’s transformation
Farrowing pen complete and first guest moves in
Graham, our Berkshire boar, moves in with the gilts
Graham, the Berkshire boar, settles in
Finally, we find a pedigree Berkshire boar
A pig of a day at the abbatoir
Ginger, the Tamworth boar, moves in to his permanent quarters
Hi! Great blog - so interesting and informative, and also just great to read about other people who value sustainable living too! Your set-up sounds great, and your pigs are absolutely beautiful!!!
Just a question though - how does pig manure go as a fertilizer for the garden? Do you use it much? And how? (Apologies if you have already explained this somewhere on your blog and I just can’t find it..)
You seem pretty sophisticated when it comes to knowing the how-to of sustainable living already, but there is a really handy journal on city and country sustainable living published in Australia called ‘Earth Garden’ that often contains a heap of really good info about a range of topics, and that we recommend to everyone we know who has an interest. Some of it specifically relates to the Australian context, but more often than not it can be applied internationally. Their website is http://www.earthgarden.com.au if you’re interested!
Thanks again for the great read!
Cheers
Ash.
Fresh, unrotted pig manure can be mixed with straw and used in the bottom of hot beds. Put a layer of topsoil on top and the rising heat from the manure keeps things like cucumbers, marrows, courgettes and pumpkins happy while the nutrients keep them well fed.
Otherwise, you need to build muck heaps (ours are one-cubic metre boxes) and alternate layers of muck with straw and grass. Leave for about a year in colder climates, less in warm climates, and you’ll end up with excellent compost.
We use pig and chicken manure in this way to fertilise all our vegetables, soft fruit and apples.
Ahhh, ok. We’d like to get pigs at some point in the future, but would probably use them mostly for the manure. Good to know those methods you’ve outlined - surprisingly I couldn’t find much online about it. Many thanks!
I have posted details of our muck operation before, or you can just use the search facility to look up “muck”.
Hey there
I’m a Cambridge University Student doing a dissertation on what scottish farmer think about a potential reintroduction of wolves in the highlands and potentially other areas of scotland. I was wondering whether i could send you a questionnaire to fill in - it is for anybody in scotland who has livestock (irrelevant of farm size). You do not have to live in the highlands to take part
Email me if you’re interested before 2nd September 2007
Cheers - great blog
Lee Ryan
Downing College
Cambridge University
I’d be fascinated to know what farmers think of that idea.
I agree with Susie about the wolf idea. The replies should be thought provoking.
I can see four obvious problems with the proposal from the start.
One, the lack of a contiguous habitat that can support both wolves and sufficient prey animals.
Two, the lack of sufficient prey animals. A wolf needs to eat at around 2-2.5kg of feed per day to reproduce (although it doesn’t necessarily eat daily, and so will eat much larger amounts when it does have the chance to eat). While there is alleged to be a surplus of red deer at present, would they be enough to feed several wolf packs? And for how long?
Three, the size of territory roamed by a wolf pack, which can be as little as 25 square miles for a bonded pair up to 1,000 square miles. I haven’t yet found specifics for the European wolf, but given that the whole of Scotland covers just 31,000 square miles and the Highlands is only a proportion of that, it doesn’t leave much room.
The fourth issue is one of education. Without that, it is inevitable that people who feel their livelihood is threatened by wolves will try to kill them or drive them.
At least one wolf pack is kept in captivity in the Highlands, at the Highland Wildlife Park. It has five wolves in area of two hectares.