[lill]

Everyone is entitled to have their favourite breed of pig, for if we all had the same breed there would not be 14 breeds under the bpa.
My personal opinion of them is they are bloody ugly, and would never have them.

[Rispain]

I agree Robert with some of what you say.  In my opinion people are relucant to part with that sort of money I think in areas where they have a choice from quite a few pigs around. I found that when we lived in Devon, we could not command that sort of money only becuase there were so many cheap pigs around selling for around £25-30. Plus of course it was a few years ago when we were there so they were cheaper anyway but the principle still lies. I found by building up a reputation and not producing many litters a year, it was easier to sell the weaners. Unfortuanately unless pigs are all sold around similar price and we are all singing from the same hymn sheet, we will always have this problem. I know I will not get fancy prices for the meishans, I won't even try. But certainly they will be priced at a higher rate than traditional breeds, really to enable me to get my money back reasonable quickly for importing them and paying the vets over in Holland. But they will not be priced unrealistically like the micros were. I am aiming for a completely different market to the micros and even maybe the traditional breeds thats why I think they it is a limited market and it will be interesting to see how they do, selling wise.

[Rispain]

karen, I agree. Two sows is not going to affect the traditional market. There is limited semen in the country and it costs thousands to get some more certified to enable me to bring some fresh over and use it. Yes if it goes well, we might bring a boar over, but this basically is a project that I think is limited if not for anything else for the reasons  Lill has said, they are bloody ugly. However they do have super meat, and fantastic personalities and they are good for lard, the best in the world. So there might be the odd person who fancies keeping a couple to then experiment with the meat/lard. They are selling well on the continent so we will see how they dp here  Apperentely many years ago there were pure bred meishans in this country for quite a while. I am in touch with a breeder in the US and he told me that. If anyone is interested in knowing more just message me.

[Dan]

Good luck to you Rispain, it looks to me like you've identified a potential niche and are enthusiastic about the project. 

Time will tell whether there's a market and whether it makes business sense, who really knows?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that - we have a hankering for Middle Whites because we like the way they look, despite others thinking they are ugly, and I'm sure there will be keepers who are smitten with the Meishans who want to try something just a bit different alongside their British breeds. 

[tizaala]

No thanks , everything foreign is being forced on us at the expence of native breeds, huge continental double muscled beef, with no flavour, fruit and veg tasting of nothing, asparagus out of season, tasting of nothing, We do not need another so called super productive animal that is all fat and no flavour. are these the ones that gave us the phrase " pig ugly ?"

[Rispain]

For anyone who is interested as the mesihan is a traditional breed albeit not of this country, the meat is fantastic tasting with good marbling that adds to the succelent taste. As you would expect for a pig that takes as long to grow as our own pigs. I will see if I can post a picture of the meat on here.

[Rosemary]

I think they're kinda cute 

[Rispain]

i have posted a pictue, hopefully it will come  out ok.

[Rispain]

meishan weaners

[Bionic]

 I don't want to get caught up in the controversy but I think the weaners look lovely
Sally

[Fowgill Farm]

I don't want to get caught up in the controversy but I think the weaners look lovely
Sally

Oh Sally you're right they're kinda ugly cute i suppose and i started the controversy, i was in an ill temper  looking for a fight yesterday and poor rispain got all the punches for which i apologise if i caused offence however i still stand as Tizala puts it that we don't do enuff to support anything british.
Bit karma today
Mandy 
ps HH & RW have sent you both message!

[Rispain]

Mandy don't worry I wasn't offended at all. I fully expected some people not to agree with what I am doing. I like to think I support british but  i would just like to try this for a while. It may go tits up (am I allowed to say that and I lose shed loads of money but hopefully I will recoup the money spent anyway. i was taken with them when I met them on a trip, they are nice pigs albeit very very ugly

[Dan]

No thanks , everything foreign is being forced on us at the expence of native breeds

What's being forced upon anyone here, and how can you possibly say introducing Meishans will be at the expense of native breeds?!

It may be that over time a small number of keepers of native breeds will reduce their numbers to accommodate Meishans, but equally it may be that the continued promotion of native breeds mean their numbers will increase. How can you possibly know unless you've got a crystal ball, in which case you should focus it on the footie results and make a fortune. 

Thank god you weren't the one to evaluate the potential of the 'foreign' potato! 

[Sylvia]

I keep out of quarrels as a rule but I should worry about all those wrinkles in the hot weather They look like an ideal breeding place for maggots. Would you have clean inside them as you would Pugs and Shar-Pei?
I think I'll stick to Kunes for the time being with the occasional couple of British rare breeds

[Rispain]

remember they are coming from Holland, which is very similar to our climate in England. They do not have any problems like that. The only problems which are as one post suggested can be eye problems, which is why it is important to choose the right breeding stock. Wrinkles should not be too close to the eyes especially the one in middle.