Pregnant Pigs

Pig up the Duff??

It had always been one of our major ambitions as smallholder pig keepers to keep a couple of our gilts and find a suitable boar to get to the next stage and make piglets.  For various reasons we had been a little slow in getting round to it this year, partly because it proved just as hard finding a boar in the vicinity much as it had when we tried to re-stock our herd the previous year with rare breed weaners.

We eventually found a boar in not too far away Burford and I cycled over there one day to meet up with Alphie (short for Alpha Male) and his owners.  I felt like a classic old style farmer, meeting up with prospective business partners and checking them out along with their livestock. I needn't have worried, the couple who had the pig were lovely and things worked out very well.  We quickly came to an arrangement and Paul and I drove over one morning to usher Alphie into the horse box and take him away for his special summer holiday.

Now, being novices at breeding we had expected it would take a long time for Alphie to come up with the goods, but no sooner had we left him to get acquainted with our young ladies than he was spotted doing the business.  Despite this we ended up needing to get Richard Pearson from The George Veterinary Group to confirm whether they were pregnant or not and he was very kind and patient with us and all our questions, offering great advice with a lovely manner. 

See Alphie and the ladies in action here http://youtu.be/jtX9Rqdvqmc