TT Autumn 11
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The Tamworth Breeders’ Club Autumn 2011 Volume 6, Issue 1 TamworthTamworth Tamworths - The future’s orange! TrumpetTrumpet New Club Secretary Lucy has decided to relinquish being Tamworth secretary owing to changed circumstances in her life- style which have severely reduced the amount of time available for her to do the job as she wanted. She has done an enormous amount for us over the past year not least completely revising and updat- ing the membership list and determining who was and who was not paid up! Inside this issue: She also oversaw the revamping of our website transferring the domain to the club’s ownership and control. Not least she has been very patiently dealing with members queries and problems, some of Tamworth Trifles 2 which were far from easy going to sort out. We are very grateful to her for putting such a lot of her time into the role and are delighted that she intends to continue her membership. We shall also look Chairman’s Message 3 forward to seeing her in her position at the Royal Berks Show which she undertakes with great finesse 25 Years with Tammys 4-5 and success each year. Thank you Lucy for being there for us at a difficult time. Howes ‘At! 6 We are very lucky to have found someone to take over from Tammys in NZ 7 Lucy and here is an introduction in her own words: My name is Michele Baldock, and I live on a smallholding on New Book 8 the Romney Marsh in Kent with my husband Mark and two daughters Florence & Edie. I have worked with animals since King of Pigs 9-11 leaving school, firstly for the Born Free Foundation for 5 years Solar PV for Farmers 11 as a big cat keeper at their rescue centre for lions, tigers and leopards and then 5 years as a veterinary nurse in small animal Shape of Things 12 practice until having the girls. Guide to AI 13-14 I am a fairly recent convert to pig keeping, starting off with Strange Bacon 15 hand rearing a Tamworth and a Saddleback piglet and enjoying the experience of growing and eating our own produce. The whole family fell in love with the charismatic Tamworths and we now have a Harris’ Bacon 16-17 small breeding herd consisting of our handsome boar Hamlet and his harem of 3 sows and 2 young Interbreed Honours 18 gilts and various weaners and growers. TWs in Jerusalem 19 I became a member of the Tamworth Breeders' Club committee at the last AGM and have been help- ing Lucy & Liz Shankland to get the new website up and running and accessible to all members. Book Review 20 This year I have had my first experiences of showing and look forward to getting to a few more shows in 2012 with some of our homebred stock, meeting new and existing members through the season, allowing you to put a face to my name! Tamworth Trumpet I am keen to continue the hard work which Lucy has put into the club with the website and updating Help spread the all the members’ information, I would welcome any members to contact me with any queries or sug- word—recruit a new gestions to how we can improve the club. member at every opportunity. Michele Baldock Fairview Farmhouse, Ruckinge. Ashford, Kent, TN26 2NT—01233 730891; 07879 697792 Pa ge 2 Tamworth Trumpet Volume 6, Issue 1 Tamworth Trifles by Dreamboy xciting news that our new website is about to go live and by E the time you receive this edition of The Trumpet could well be up and running. We owe a great deal to our secretary, Lucy, and also to that ebullient journalist and show person, Liz Shankland in getting it all off the ground. I can fully recommend the acquisition of our editor, Richard Lutwy- che's, latest book, " Higgledy Piggledy ", which has provided me with many interesting things about pigs I never knew about. How he has collected all this information and kept it organised in one place I have no idea! It's the sort of book you can keep by your bedside or favourite armchair and just keep dipping into time and time again. There is a mass of amazing miscellany about pigs drawn from a worldwide basis. Another book which is designed to be dipped into and well worth the investment is "Hatfield - The First 400 years", edited by the BPA President's wife, Hannah Salisbury. All sorts of interesting family history is here and she has not spared the family blushes by not including items of family scandal which have occurred along the centuries. Not that it appears in the book, but I was interested to learn that Lord Salisbury's first ever pig was a Tamworth, given to him as a present. Apparently it was love at first sight (as is usual when people acquire their first Tammy!) and the affair was cemented when soon afterwards she gave birth to her first litter. It wasn't long before other breeds had joined her and that the "Emsworth" style porcine accommodation had been set up at Cranborne - the rest as they say being history. It is great to see the pigs being transferred to Hatfield and the setting up of a magnificent new farm park there. This should be a great benefit to the people of North London who are not used to seeing our traditional livestock. It is also good to hear that showing will once again recom- mence from Lord Salisbury's herd of pigs and that we should indeed soon have some good competition from his Tamworths. It was good to see Viki Mills return to the RBST Council with a substantially increased vote. Pigs need a strong voice and a deci- sive approach on this influential and positive body promoting our traditional breeds across the spectrum. Great news that the RASE have appointed a new dynamic Chief Executive whose main object in life it appears is to restore the Royal Show. Many people felt that this once su- premely popular event could have been saved or refounded by "starting small" and rebuilding. British agriculture needs a national showcase and it would be fantastic if we could once again show our wonderful breed on a national basis and again compete for what was always the most sought after prize in British pig showing - supreme championship at the Royal. The Tamworths have not attained this in living memory. Congratulations to Bill Quay's Ryan Perry and Shute Vale's Kieran Finn on qualifying for the final of the young pig handler at Hatfield Show. Kieran came in a creditable reserve champion to Hayley Loveless as he did last year. Unfortunately, Ryan was unable to make the final but I hear that he has started a new job at the RBST revolv- ing around genetics and is lodging with Bill and Shirley Howes in Kenilworth. I wonder if we will see him helping the "old boy" out in the show ring next year! Tamworth Trumpet Volume 6, Issue 1 Pa ge 3 Message from your Chairman by Nick Hunkin have been very pleasantly surprised this year at just how well the traditional I pig breeders of the UK have withstood the con- tinuing downturn in the pig in- dustry. Many breeders have worked hard over the years to build up a pork cus- tomer base and have diversified into interesting cu- linary sidelines. By and large their end users have not deserted them and have been prepared to pay an in- creased premium for their products reflecting the increased production costs that have occurred. This success has been reflected in the show ring and the much dreaded possible reduction in entries anticipated by senior stewards at the beginning of the year on the whole has not happened. It would seem the Tamworth breed is surviving very well - perhaps reflecting the superb quality of our delicious meat and the ingenuity of our producers. You have not got to look very far for the leading lights of pedigree pork production when we can boast members like the Francis brothers and Caroline Wheatley-Hubbard. I achieved a 24 year ambition at the beginning of September when I won my very first supreme interbreed champion- ship with a Tamworth pig at a major County Show - the Dorset County. I have won Supremes with other breeds I have been involved with over the years and with Tamworths a best traditional and reserve champion once but the big one had eluded me - until now. But then I am always a slow starter where Tamworths are concerned! After all it took me 15 years to win breed champion at the Royal Show! It was good to see a Tamworth represented in the final of the Pig of the Year this year. After a string of 5 years being represented, we had been missing for a year and it was good to see the breed back up there once again. I still think it was a judge's omission that we went 21 years without producing a single qualifier and I do not regret losing my commentating position at the Great Yorkshire for saying this publicly. It was good to see some new faces in the show ring this year especially at the Royal Bath and West and the Great Yorkshire which are now the 2 premier UK agricultural shows where pigs are concerned. I hope all you newcomers enjoyed yourselves and will be happy to repeat the experience in future years.