Complete Guide to Pigs

The Escape Committee!	Practising loading a pig onto a trailer
A guided tour of the piggery by Plum, one of our Oxford Sandy & Blacks	Crumble cooling off on a hot day!

This one day ‘hands- on’ course is run by Richard Lutwyche, Treasurer and Honorary Vice President of the Gloucestershire Old Spot Pig Society and winner of the 2011 Radio Four Food & Farming Award for Services to the Rare Breed Pig Industry.

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The course covers every aspect of keeping pigs from selecting your first pigs to breeding and selling meat and is run once a year to coincide with our two lovely sows, Plum & Crumble, having their spring litters..

**We will have two litters of Oxford Sandy & Black piglets to see at the next course (due in Feb and March)**

Part One – Getting Started:  The rules and regulations, the commitment needed, plus an in depth look at housing, fencing, water and feeding requirements.

 Part Two – Choosing your Pigs:  What to look for when you choose a pig, including breed selection and handling techniques.  How to load a pig onto a trailer and transport rules.

Part Three – Ear marking and weighing:  How to accurately judge the weight of your pigs and the different methods of marking them for identification.

Part Four – Breeding:  Here we look at how to select a boar, heat detection, mating, AI and gestation.

Part Five – The Marketplace:  Selling pigs, abattoirs and marketing meat.

Location: The course will be run in our lovely strawbale classroom at Mumbleys Farmhouse

Timings: 10am - 4pm

Cost: £95 per person, including all refreshments and a two course home-cooked farmhouse lunch in our lovely kitchen