New pig club to take flight
Following the success of our pig clubs for small-scale pig producers in the South of England, I’m excited to announce that we are launching a new one in Worcestershire on April 24.
To date, the meetings, organised in conjunction with the British Pig Association, have provided an excellent forum for less experienced pig keepers to hear from regional pig vets and nutritionists, as well as build relationships with other small-scale producers.
This has meant that attendees have been able to receive expert advice and information directly from the people who really know what they are talking about, which is one of the big selling points, as the internet can be a real minefield and not always helpful at providing accurate advice and information.
Speaking about the meetings, Richard Pearson, a vet from the George Veterinary Group, said: “Last year’s health workshops for small-scale producers with AHDB Pork and BPA really surprised me.
“All three workshops were extremely well attended, with a varied audience, who were really very interested in pig health, and interesting to talk to.”
Key messages regarding preventive health planning were highlighted by Richard, including biosecurity and vaccination. Producers were also encouraged to engage with their vets to develop a basic health plan: prevention is always better than cure!
Following the meetings, many of the producers who attended said they will be looking at their vaccination programmes and speaking to their vets to discuss pig health in more detail. This is really encouraging and demonstrates the value of running the meetings.
Kim Brook, a small-scale producer in the South, said: “These meetings are a wonderful source of information and the explanations are very clear and made easy to understand.”
Another attendee, Dawn Stevens, said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the meeting. There was some very useful information from all three speakers and some things to think about for my own herd.”
It’s on the back of this positive feedback that we decided it was time to launch a new pig club for small-scale producers and we have chosen Worcestershire as the location following a vote run across social media.
If this is something that might be of interest to you, keep an eye on our website for details or feel free to get in touch. We also run a couple of other pig clubs in the region, which are not specifically aimed at small-scale producers, but everyone is welcome. These meetings are held in Reaseheath (Cheshire) and Hodnet (Shropshire) and I’d love to see you at one or more of them.
Angela Cliff, AHDB Pork knowledge exchange manager (Midlands)
