Rachel Graham charts the journey of a breeder, from two weaners, to breeding around 60 pigs a year for her meat business…

Raskelf Rare and Heritage Breeds is owned and managed by Lyn Arrowsmith. For over 35 years, Lyn’s passion for rare breed animals has seen her competing and winning at some of the most prestigious rare breed events in the country.

She currently holds 17 different breeds on her farm and is committed to the development and preservation of her rare breed animals. With an established business selling meat from her sheep, about 16 years ago she decided to produce her own pork and beef to sell alongside her existing range.

“I started with two weaners so I could go through the process and understand it. Having no experience with pigs, I wanted to see how it went. Loading them to bring them home was interesting – I found the idea that they squeal when you catch them quite astonishing, to be honest, but I soon realised that it was fear, not aggression!

“I’d always wanted Saddlebacks. I had a Britain’s farm set when I was little, which had Saddlebacks, and I adore them. They get under your skin; I find pigs a lot easier than sheep. They’re easy going and just get on with it. They eat, they sleep, they dig around a bit and are always happy to see you. They aren’t scared of you, and they don’t need to be ‘caught’. Apart from the mucking out, they’re an absolute pleasure! Sitting with a farrowing sow… there’s something special between you.”

FROM BUYING TO BREEDING
After the first two weaners were a success, Lyn bought in more so she’d have a consistent throughput and fairly quickly also bought two registered gilts for breeding. As for pork sales, Lyn started by walking around the village asking people if they’d like some sausages, and things grew from there. Her lamb and beef was sold through word of mouth and was initially sold in mixed boxes, but now she offers her customers a lot more choice in terms of cuts.

The same approach is used for Lyn’s pork, with generally no two cutting lists being the same. Her customers know when pork is going to be available and let her know if they want particular cuts. She’s lucky that, over the years, she’s built up an excellent relationship with her butcher, who is very accommodating about cutting to order. Some people also want things like trotters or offal, which can also be done.

The majority of sales are of fresh meat, but anything that can’t be picked up on collection day is frozen, which also means that Lyn generally has something available for ad hoc sales. When she was also breeding Tamworths, Lyn’s customers learned to tell the difference in taste, and some prefer it to Saddleback, so she still buys in Tamworth weaners to cater for that. demand, and fill in the gaps if she doesn’t have a Saddleback ready to go. That’s one. of the differences between keeping pigs and other livestock. A litter of piglets is usually10-12, so it’s important to market your weaners and sell them on to have some money coming in while the others grow on for finishing.

Pic caption: Lyn Arrowsmith, owner of Raskelf Rare and Heritage Breeds.

This article extract was taken from the February 2024 edition of The Country Smallholder. To read the article in full, and hear more about. Lyn’s business , you can buy the issue here.

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