The Tamworth Breeders’ Club Summer 2010 Volume 5, Issue 1 TamworthTamworth Tamworths - The future’s orange! TrumpetTrumpet Upcoming Happenings utumn is a special time and the Tamworth Breeders’ Club have much going on to keep you Inside this issue: A involved in the run-up to winter. Firstly, at the Royal Berkshire & Newbury Show just off the M4 motorway, there will be the judging of the Champion of Champions for the Tamworth breed. This 1 takes place on Sunday 19th September and it is hoped to see as many qualifiers - winners of the Breed Championships at this season’s leading shows - there competing for the greatest accolade. The judge Tamworth Trifles 2 this year is Mrs Viki Mills from Devon who has been a stalwart of the Tamworth breed for many years, Chairman’s Message 3 (see the Winter 2007 edition of Tamworth Trumpet ). Then there’s the submission of applica- The Rufforth Herd 4 tions please for the annual Points Compe- Piggy Vet’s Tale 5 tition to determine the Tamworth Pig of the Year 2010. A form is enclosed which The Finest Pork 6 please complete and return to Carolyn before the due date shown on it. If you A Fitting End 7 don’t return the completed form, your Transport Regulations 8 prize-winning pig won’t be considered! It’s up to you! Show Round-Up 9-10 Lastly, but probably most importantly, it’s Successful Breeding 11-12 our AGM and Members’ Day on Sunday October 17th. This year we are most for- Memories of a Pig- 13-15 tunate to have been invited to the Cots- Keeping Man wold Farm Park for the day by BBC Letter from Carolyn 16 Countryfile presenter and Tamworth breeder, Adam Henson. BPA Show & Sale of Now AGMs are generally considered to Pedigree Pigs be stuffy, dry occasions where nothing much changes and po-faced officials read Ross-on-Wye Cattle Market, Herefordshire boring reports telling you nothing new. (at end of M50) But it doesn’t have to be like that! Come along and join in. Read Carolyn’s letter on page 16 - the Club Sat Oct 2nd is looking to grow and develop and needs your help to do so. Come and maybe stand for Committee and help drive the Club forward and make Tamworths even more successful than they are now. This is 5 Tamworths entered to everyone’s advantage so please, give a little time and let us hear your thoughts and ideas. It’s going to a great day out, you’ll meet lots of great people and have an exclusive tour round the first and best Rare Breeds Centre in the country. Tamworth Trumpet Finally, just a word about what’s inside this issue. Your Chairman has worked tirelessly to secure so Help spread the many interesting articles from the likes of Charles Campion, Jereme Darke, Nick Framcis and Geoff word—recruit a new Wilson. Then there’s contributions from others such as Sue Fildes raising interestimg new information member at every about the transport regulations which could help many small breeders, Nick Hargrave with very practi- opportunity. cal advice about how to get the best from your breeding and a fascinating look back at how things were done in the past through the eyes of Eric Freeman. A whole host of information to enjoy! Pa ge 2 Tamworth Trumpet Volume 5, Issue 1 Tamworth Trifles by Dreamboy t is not often we see farm dispersal sales including significant numbers of I pigs - let alone traditional breeds but such happened at Sarah Harris' Long Burton herd near Sherborne in Dorset back in early July. Unfortunately, Sarah retired from major farming which is a great shame as we will lose a great pro- ponent of Tamworth pork marketing. The great news was, however, the prices which the dispersal attracted with a top price of £350 guineas and some excel- lent prices in the late 200s showing an average of £170 guineas all through including young stock. The car park was packed and gates and fencing stakes fetched as much or more as they would new in the local agricultural mer- chants!! Liz Shankland had a very exciting Royal Welsh show with her sow not only winning the Tamworth Breed Championship but also the Traditional Breed Championship. Liz was understandably absolutely over the moon particularly as she had had a disappointing sea- son thus far owing to circumstances beyond her control. Keep it up Liz!! I know you will be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come. I hear Viki Mills is still very much a driving force in pigs even though it is behind the scenes. She has been sorting out all the trophies which were in BPA control and given out at the Royal. As she quite rightly says, it would be a pity if they just gathered dust in the office at Cambridge. She has recently celebrated a huge milestone with her daughter Abigail's 50th birthday party. The family was joined from America by Abigail's famous impresario father, Richard Pilbrow, who brought to the West End so many famous musi- cals from America such as Fiddler on the Roof in association with Hal Prince. It is great to experience the enthusiasm of James Sage, one of our latest showing recruits in the Tamworth breed. On his first outing with a Tamworth at this year's Three Counties, he won 1st in the July gilt class and Reserve Breed Champion. Let's hope this will be the first of many great successes for James who has written an article for the Trumpet this month. There's no stopping the ebullient and determined Scotsman - or in this case Scotswoman!!! When the committee decided to appoint Lillian as Tamworth representative for Scotland, little did we realise what a huge impact this would make. Lillian is a very determined lady and has spread her enthusiasm to the BPA and now organises the pig demonstrations at the Royal Highland Show. This hasn't had pig classes for very many years and most people have given up on them ever being reinstated - that of course was before the arri- val of Lillian on the scene. She is bound and determined to persuade the show to reinstate these classes and knowing Lillian well I don't give out much hope for the Royal Highland in long term resistance - watch this space!!! She has continued as you will see from her article to promote our breed at various other shows around Scotland including the Royal Highland - and all this without a penny from the main coffers of the club!!! I was amused to hear that our editor, Richard Lutwyche, was called in at short notice to commentate at the final of the pig of the year at the Great Yorkshire Show. This was because the regular commentator pulled out as he didn't feel he had been officially invited to do it. Luckily Richard was around, as he only had three minutes notice! I hear he did a brilliant job as always. When the Royal finally exited our scene last year, that wonderful trophy "The Ruffoth" cup reverted to its presenters, the Wilson family from Yorkshire They had won it many times over the years and fully de- served to keep it in perpetuity. I hear they have very generously offered to contribute a replacement the value of which would be up to £500 should the Royal re-establish pig classes at any time in the future! Rufforth Royal won the RASE Breed Championship at Windsor in 1954. Tamworth Trumpet Volume 5, Issue 1 Pa ge 3 Message from your Chairman by Nick Hunkin ot a great year for the Hunkins personally this year as Liz was fighting cancer for most of it. The great news is that she is in full remission and the consultant N "doesn't expect to see her again". Unfortunately, while she was being treated, she came across three other people she knew, all of whom died. It brought it across to us how lucky we were that she responded to treatment so well. Whilst all this was going on, I gave up full time work to look after her and unfortunately the Shute Vale herd was one of the main casualties. We currently only have 2 pigs and they are being looked after very kindly by a good friend. Apart from all this, it is good to see that we continue to grow as a breed in numbers and have more than our fair share of new mem- bers. We can only hope that this will be reflected in due course with some more new faces in the show ring, as some of our more established show people are advancing in years and we could do with some replacements!!! It is great to see younger people like James Sage and Roberts and Fairclough come into showing with such enthusiasm - let's hope there'll be a few more. I personally missed the Royal this year - for all its shortcomings, idiosyncrasies and expense, it was still the great national showcase and the show we all aimed to win—a fitting climax to the earlier county shows. It would seem a great pity if this does not get resurrected in some format or another although the signs aren't very promising at the moment. The great disappointment for 2010 was not to have any pigs forward in the Pig of the Year final at Harrogate. This is the first time this has happened since the Chairman's “The great outburst in his final year as commentator at the Great Yorkshire!! I think all the breeders agree that this year it is certainly not the fault of un-noticing judges but that the standard disappointment for of Julys forward this year was just not good enough.