The year is already flying by, the weather has been kind to us, no snow (yet!), quite mild apart from a few days of hard frosts but too much rain. We have had 5 litters so far this year, 2 of which are hampshire x welsh, we are looking forward to see how they finish.

We have just started sending our first batch of pedigree hampshire finishers to the butchers, fantastic results so far, the finish is immense, the feedback from customers is excellent and the butcher is now smiling!. We will expand our Hampshire herd and are now sourcing new sow lines.

Preparation for the show season is underway, I have 2 promising welsh gilts ready to go in pig, a young Hampshire gilt and a young Emporor boar.  It will be interesting to show a Hampshire against a Welsh, from past experience anything that isn't pink definately isn't welsh and isn't going to win! I will do my best to throw a spanner in the works because my husband is going to show the welsh against me and my hampshire gilt.

I have decided to sell my beloved Daintree Impish, she is in pig to an Arthur boar and is going to a good home in Llandovery, we need to free up some space and her stable is destined to become a cutting / cold room in due course, we are also changing our bloodlines and have her daughters to breed from. Weaner sales are going well, we only have 1 litter of cross breds left to sell, the pedigree welsh are close to finishing and we don't sell hampshire weaners.

We are looking into starting a small campsite in our 7 acre field along with conservation tree plantation so it is going to be a busy year for us.

Wow, where did the summer go? The 7 wks school  holiday flew by with horrible weather and then, for the 1st time ever, we had a barbie on the beach on the 1st of October, very nice but strangely weird.

It has been a busy time with the pigs, we introduced the Hampshire breed to our herd in April, we now have a young boar from the Root bloodline and a Judy sow that had a litter 4 weeks ago.  Our half pig packs and and whole hogs for roasts proved to be very popular and we ran out of finishers half way through the summer, we are putting a slightly more organised breeding programme in place, hopefully next summer there will be enough to go round!

Showing has yet again proved to be a massive learning curve, we had to pull out of the smallholders festival due to my daughters illness, we managed two 3rds and a 2nd at Tivyside show, Cardigan County show proved to be a huge challenge, it was boiling hot with very little shade, the pens consisted of small sheep hurdles and the judging was delayed for an hour whilst we waited for the other competitors to reach the showground (not good). Our pigs in the meantime had got very hot, rooted for England and were filthy by the time the judging commenced, everytime we washed them off they rolled again! Needless to say the judge appeared less than impressed and we came 3rd in both classes, although I have to say that I have never witnessed the porker section being judged in trailers in private before, (again our porkers had been left to stew in their pens for over an hour and were practically barbequed). A harsh lesson was learned, if you have to show off the field make sure you are as late as possible so the pigs are spotless and roll off the ramp straight into the show ring and keep the porkers in the trailer if they are a little over weight! We finished on a high at Pembrokeshire County Show, winning Best Gilt born in 2011, the judge said that if she had been a little older and bigger she would have been best in show! Next year we are hoping to show some young Hampshires, first stop the Smallholders Festival!

September was rounded off with our pork being showcased at the Narberth Food Festival 2011 by Andrew Rees butchers, we are very proud of this and feel that all the hard work we put in has been rewarded.