Gordon Bennett!

Well, that was a weekend we hadn’t expected!! We always knew there’d come a time when we would need to find a way to get Prue back into pig, but our Plan A fell through, so I was tasked with finding plan B, and it came into fruition a little faster than I’d imagined!

What does that involve…?? The key thing about finding Prue a mate, is to find a boar that is big enough to take her on, but also has a different blood line (to avoid piglets with cross eyes or webbed feet!!)

The BPA (British pig association) website is a valuable source of information where we register our pedigree pigs which helps everyone to trace the bloodlines. I was able to perform a search for Large Black breeders in the areas, and then worked my way through the (very small) list of LB breeders who had a male pig >1 year old in Cornwall who was a good match for Prue. By chance, the first people I spoke to were about to look for a home for their beloved 6 year old boar, Gordon. Due to their circumstances, he need a home sooner rather than later. Not wanting to put Gordon in the tempting line of sight of our 4 sows (also known as the Christmas pigs!), we needed to swap Prue into her original pen and relocate the weaners (Prue’s piglets who had weaned off her a few weeks ago) into her pen next-door to the Christmas pigs.

Prue diligently followed the bucket of food into a holding pen, and the weaners also followed remarkably well … until they got to their new pen, when they thought better of it! After a 30 minute run around, we got everyone where they were meant to be and the next day we welcomed Gordon to the farm! Now we wait to see if he will get on with Prue and do the necessary deed. Early signs are good!

Gorgeous Gordon!