Pigs

The Gilbury Herd

We currently have three female Gloucester Old Spot pigs which we keep for breeding. Peggy and Doris were born in the Summer of 2009; Peggy is a Bluebell and Doris a Princess Mary. We also have Betty who is a Muriel and we have high hopes for her in the show ring!

The Gloucester Old Spot Breed

We decided to go with Gloucester Old Spots because of the superior meat they produce and their lively and fun temperaments; we also just love the spots! It is the oldest of the pedigree breeds, originating in the South West and was often referred to as 'The Cottagers Pig'. You can read more about the history of the Gloucester Old Spot on the Breeders Club website. They are also on the Rare Breed Survival Trusts Watchlist, although in recent years numbers have increased. In 2010 Gloucester Old Spots achieved the impressive 'Traditional Speciality Guaranteed' Award and we hope to apply for the award for our herd in 2011.

Piglets

Any piglets which we consider to be of good enough Gloucester Old Spot breed standards, we will sell for breeding and any others are far sale as weaners. Please watch the Pigs for Sale page for further details of when piglets will be available. All our piglets will be birth notified and tattooed and any we are selling to breed from we will register fully.

Pork

We keep a number of weaners ourselves to rear for meat and have plenty of meat available to buy now from the house as well as larger quantities that can be booked from the current piglets. Please watch our Pork page for further updates of when our meat is available and for further details of how and where our pigs are slaughtered and butchered.

Welfare

All our pigs are kept outdoors with plenty of room to forage and root in order to live as natural and happy a life as possible. They have lovely houses with plenty of straw to bed down and they are moved onto fresh ground regularly to prevent a build up of parasites.  Our pigs are fed on Crediton Milling pig nuts and they receive fresh greens from the garden in accordance with DEFRA guidelines. We would like to feed our pigs organic food but at the moment this is not possible due to costs. We would be interested to hear customers feedback on this issue.  We worm our pigs regularly but they are not vaccinated and we do not routinely medicate unless there is very good reason. Our boar piglets are not castrated and we never use rings in the pigs noses.  People interested in buying our pigs or pork are always welcome to come and see how our pigs live.