The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Jimmy 84 on November 14, 2017, 08:17:16 pm
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Good evening everyone,
I'm after some advise.
I currently farm wild boar for meat in woodland i own and business is moving along well and we slaughter around 40+ per year. I'm running 10 wild boar sows and a boar. I've now rented some more land adjacent to my woodland which has basically doubled the size of my holding. My intention is to start a herd of rare breed pigs of around 15 sows and 2 boars selling weaners and growing some on for pork/bacon etc.
If business goes the way we are hoping then long term we will be looking to build the business further and our aim is to run a small business where everything but the slaughter of the rare breed pigs is contained within the holding.
However, after talking to friend of mine today who works in the agricultural sector, he is under the impression that i would no longer fall into the same category as a smallholding and therefor fall under different regulations because i would have to much head of livestock. Is this the case? if so where can i find these regulations as i cannot seem to find them anywhere.
I would be grateful if anyone could shed some light on the above or whether i'm being miss informed.
Many thanks
Jim
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No idea what he means. Pig husbandry comes under same rules and regs whether you have 1 or 100 pigs.
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I don't think there is any legal definition of a smallholding. Maybe he's thinking of the official smallholdings set up after the wars to provide livelihoods for ex servicemen, which were of the same size, but whether they had rules governing how they were run, I don't know. Or maybe he's thinking of VAT rules.
Sounds like you need to speak to your friend again for clarification.
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I think there might be something about pigs in volume, you know. There’s some bit on the movement form that relates to batches or something... ???
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I think there might be something about pigs in volume, you know. There’s some bit on the movement form that relates to batches or something... ???
Sometimes pigs are born at one unit, grown on at another and those units are part of a pig pyramid but it doesn't affect the vast majority of us.
I don't know what your friend is talking about either although I can see even 10 sows might not be considered a smallholding in some peoples eyes. Some insurers might not class you as one either. Apart from that meat production for the public is the same rules for everyone whether 1 pig, 10 or 20.
Good luck with your project though!
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To my mind the word smallholding is vague and has no meaning in law. We started with 1 sow two years ago, we now have 13. We always intended it as a farm, so nothing has changed, just a larger feed bill.
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Nope I don't get it either. As far as I can see in all the regs as soon as you are commercial all rules apply whatever the scale. There are some aspects which are a bit more discretionary if you are a hobby farmer but they still refer to welfare so that kinda takes you back to complying with regs anyway. The regs are the regs and if you are already complying with them, no problem.
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Thanks for all your replies.
I've been scouring the websites for any information and can't find anything anywhere about it either. I might give APHA a call and talk to them about it as I've found them very helpful in the past. If i find anything out i will be sure to let you all know.