Our Pigs
We keep rare breed Gloucester Old Spot, Middle White and Berkshire registered pigs. They are free to root and wallow at will, have deep straw filled arks which are snug and warm in winter, and we believe they live an extremely happy life."The Orchard Pig". Folklore says that the spots on its back are bruises from the falling fruit of Apple and Pear Trees.
Our registered Old Spot sows are from the ‘Princess’ and ‘Princess Joan’ breed lines. Currently we have ‘Pru’ and ‘Spotty’
We also keep our own Boar - Camddwr Gerald 9, known as 'Wesley' and who is available for hire. The breed originated in the Thames Valley areas circa 1790. Although primarily black in colour, the Berkshire carcass dresses out completely white, and has a high proportion of lean meat to fat. The flesh is fine in texture and has a distinct flavour.
We have two Pedigree Berkshire sows, from ‘Excelsa’ and ‘Lady’ breed lines, affectionately known as 'Belle’ and ‘Heather Pig’ The breed 'officially' came about back in 1884 and became known as 'the London Porker', but became a minority breed around 1930's during difficult economic times and a lesser quality pork from immature bacon pigs was sought by the housewife, and thus the Middle White rapidly diminished in popularity.
In the 1990's "quality, not quantity" became the ethos and thus the Middle White began to gain favour once again for its early maturity to quality succulent pork.
We have a lovely rare breed Middle White Sow who goes by the name of ‘Mollie’, and is from the ‘Fairlady’ breed line.
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Member of the: British Pig Association Gloucester Old Spot Pig Breeders Club Berkshire Pig Breeders Club |
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Our
Sheep
We have kept Ryeland sheep since moving here in 2008 and run a flock of White Ryeland and one of Coloured Ryelands too. Our white stock ram is currently 'Maen Gwyn Nelson' and our Coloured Stock Ram is 'Derwen Lapwing'.
Aside from the Ryelands, we introduced a small flock of Greyface
Dartmoors at the end of 2010 and have 'Geronimo' as our stock ram. These
are very woolly sheep (Lustre Longwool), have adorable faces, are easy
to handle, and more importantly are on the Rare Breeds list which means
we can include these in our programme for helping to maintain these
animals.
We now also have (introduced Summer 2011) 3 Zwartble cross Texel Ewes,
which are a large sheep with a good sized carcass and we're looking
forward to seeing what 'appears' when we cross them with our Ryeland.
These are soley for the meat side of things, although they are rather
smart looking sheep and I might just be tempted to 'Show' one in a
Crossbred class somewhere.
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Our Goats
We specialise in Anglo-Nubian goats which, although less prolific in
their milk production than some of the other breeds, produce a higher
butterfat milk and which is therefore EXTRA delicious - Well that's our
opinion, anyway. The goats are milked twice a day and produce more than
enough milk to not only supply the house, but also gets turned into soft
and hard cheese as well as yoghurt. Any excess milk goes to the weaner
pigs and the whey (having been separated from the curds when cheese
making) also goes to the pigs as a special treat.
We currently have Ivans Jangalli, Ivans Jemini and Ivans Jeni. as our breeding does. Ballingall Spring is a 2010 kid bought from the breeder in Scotland and Faithmead Hebe is our own home bred 2010 kid which we've kept back for future breeding. We also have Klimova Bacchus, as 2010 male kid who is our stud buck.
Our herd of pedigree goats are CAE negative
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Our Poultry and Waterfowl
We run a fairly wide variety of hens for egg laying and these include:
Rhode Island Red X Light Sussex; Light Sussex; Auracana; Cream Leg Bars;
Brahma; White Star and Welsummer as well as Poland, Dominique and Pekin
Bantams. From this lot we get "all the colours, in all the sizes"!
We also have Indian Runner, Silver Appleyard and Khaki Campbell ducks.
There is also a pair of Geese (George and Gill) who do a fabulous job of
watching over the flock and anouncing any suspect 'visitors'.
Our Poultry and Waterfowl are DEFRA registered.
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Contact Us
Mandy and Derek Colbourne
Glyn Elwyn
Blaenwaun
Whitland
Dyfed
SA34 0JL
Telephone: 01994 448760 Mobile: 07884 170627 eMail: faithmead@websdc.com