The Great Yorkshire Show on 13-15 July, in Harrogate offers the best competition in the pig classes in the Uk. Exhibitors travel from all corners of the UK to show their best pigs. Carole will be taking some Hampshire and British Lop pigs and I will be showing British Saddleback and Hampshire pigs.
We will have a busy Tuesday as all the breed classes take place, on Wednesday and Thursday it is mainly the special classes including ‘pig of the year’.
Pigs of all breeds qualify at BPA shows all over the country for this final show down at the GYS. The winning pig is deemed to be the best young pig (born after 1 July 2009) in the country and is the prize coveted by all exhibitors as the pinacle of pig breeding success.
We welcome any enquiries about our pigkeeping courses and will be delighted to discuss pigkeeping in general. You will easily be able to find us as we will have our banners for the Coal Yeat Herd and Ashgyll herd on our pens, surrounded by pigkeeping courses leaflets. If we are wearing a white coat and tie and are red in the face with beads of sweat on our brow it probably means we are in the middle of showing our pigs as the classes come thick and fast once they start. So please forgive us in advance if you do not receive the friendliest of receptions in these intense circumstances.
I’m very fortunate to have a trainee vet on the farm this week, for a weeks hands on pigkeeping experience. Part of his ‘training’ is washing the British Saddleback and Hampshire pigs in preparation for the GYS, and an excellent job he is making of it. This is a unique opportunity for these undergraduate vets to experience pig handling, as they get direct contact with the pigs which boosts their animal handling skills and overall confidence.
Fortunately the photographer who visited this week was brought up on a farm so had no problems when mobbed by the growing pigs at Coal Yeat Farm. Wayne Hutchinson, the counties leading farm animal photographer www.farm-images.co.uk, was commissioned to photograph all the British breeds of pigs with a deadline of only a few days so was delighted to discover British Saddleback’s, Hampshire and Oxford Sandy and Black pigs in the Coal yeat Herd and a Large Black together with British Lop pigs up with Carole in Torver. I was also able to help him with shots of injecting and tooth trimming of young piglets together with loading and moving pigs.
Its all go!
We look forward to meeting you at the Great Yorkshire Show or the Great Eccleston Show near Preston on the weekend of 17/18 July.
John
