Our Pigs

Our first three breeding sows joined us in August 2019; Matilda, Aethel and Bouddicca. Victoria followed in January 2020, with Jane arriving shortly thereafter, and since then we've steadily grown to a total of 14 sows. Two of our current sows, Makeda and Cleo, are Aethel's daughters by our first boar, Bruce, and we've sold registered pedigree breeding stock across the UK and in to France.

Unless they are due to farrow or have pigs at foot, our sows live in groups with a boar in large arks. There's definitely a pecking order, but some of them have formed tight bonds and have really obvious preferences for particular 'friends'.

Bruce, pictured above, was our first boar. He was an extraordinary gentle giant. Always gentle with his girls, there was no doubt that he was in charge, but he was equally affectionate towards us and was always keen on a scratch (much like a dog who leans up against your leg, but 300kg...)

Bruce died in 2022, but we bred one of our current boars, Aethelstan, from him out of a visiting sow, and he's growing up to be every bit as lovely. We also have Jack, another boar we bought in the autumn of 2022.

All of our pigs stay with their mothers until they are eight weeks old. Large Blacks are slow growing,  so we take them on to around 10 months old before slaughter - around twice the age of a commercial pig.

As a result we have anywhere from 140 to 170 growing pigs of various ages and sizes on the ground at any time.

They are really inquisitive and because we feed them manually every day, pretty people friendly. It's true that they're as smart as dogs which means we're constantly mending fences as they find new ways to escape their paddocks, but they're an absolute joy to be around.