Tamworth Breeders Club AGM

Hello Everyone,

The Tamworth Breeders Club is a national organisation whose aim is to promote the Tamworth breed of pigs, and last weekend, for the very first time the Annual General Meeting of the Club was held in the North of the country – in Hexhamshire! This was a great honour for us to host the meeting.

After the meeting was held we provided lunch of our pork sausages, onion gravy, mashed potatoes and carrots followed by apple pie and custard was eaten. Then an afternoon walk around our fields, polytunnels and pig pens for the members – see photo above.

A very busy weekend for Bob and I but very interesting. It was good to take the chance to chat to other pig farmers and realise that no matter which area of Britain the Tamworth pigs are living in, we all have very similar challenges and issues. We all want the pedigree Tamworth to survive and prosper. One of the main aims of the club is to ensure the breeding lines are maximised. There are only 300 Tamworth breeding sows in the country -and we have two of them! The Tamworth is one of, if not the, the oldest types of pigs and they are bred for taste as-well as looks. As our butcher says….our pork is “proper meat”.

As I mentioned last week, I would be telling you about our future plans, so here we go……

Our box scheme is proving to be quite popular and successful…..thank you to our lovely customers. As a result we need to increase the amount of land we use for producing our organic vegetables…….by three fold…..help!!!! Alongside this increase in use of land we are also adopting a “no dig” approach to cultivation.

A “no dig” approach involves adding, on an annual basis, organic matter to the soil. This increases the soil fertility and also suppresses weeds. By adding organic matter, it also means that ploughing, rotovating and digging is not required. We let nature do the job….meaning the worms. The first stage of this new approach begins Monday when seventy tons of organic compost arrives. First job….Bob and I will be spreading the compost over an area in the Pond Field of six hundred square meters. Bob has cleared this area of produce and weeds, and applied limestone to increase the pH levels of the soil ready for our new approach……..another seventy tons arrives in the new year for the next six hundred square metres! This approach has been developed with considerable input from the Soil Association who have been incredibly helpful to us.

Watch this space. Take care,

Ann