[sabrina]

Well done you !

[mowhaugh]

We recently also joined BPA, and did not get caught out this way, but only because it happened to me before, so when i rang just after we got Doreen, I asked specifically about this and was told if I waited until the beginning of December we would get 13 months membership.

We did join as it seems the right thing to do, the breed we have chose is Large Blacks and we want to do everything we can to help the breed survive, but I also couldn't believe how expensive it is.  We have two sows, so also paid the £60.  Ideally we do want to breed pedigree piglets, but I think we will have to see how we go with our first litters to see if we can really justify the expense.

[Bodger]

In my case, I've bred and birth notified one litter of eight piglets. There were six boars in the litter which will go for meat and that leaves me two gilts, that may or may not be good enough to be registered.

[Tim W]

this is surely a problem that effects all breeders of 'pedigree' livestock?

You pay a fee to an organisation who you think will promote and advertise the stock you are keeping. They also keep a register of the dams and sires of all the animals (for a fee)
All this means is that they have a bit of paper with details that you supplied them with in the first place!

It's very often a rip off and many of these breed societies are very inefficient ---more concerned with ties/flat caps and tradition than promoting or improving the animals and members they are meant to represent

The whole idea of 'pedigree' animals is a bit of a funny thing anyway---I have much more information about my mongrel sheep than most pedigree societies, whilst they know the dams and sires I know this + genotypes/growth rates/FEC counts/muscle depths/fat depths etc etc etc

Sorry--- rant over 

[Fowgill Farm]

It's very often a rip off and many of these breed societies are very inefficient ---more concerned with ties/flat caps and tradition than promoting or improving the animals and members they are meant to represent

You will find that the Gloucestershire Old Spot breed society is a very effective breed society see www.gospbc.co.uk havign recently taken the likes of Waitrose to court over labelling & winning & other cases where the integrity of the breed has been abused. The breed is also well promoted by the club & membership is still relatively cheap. The society does however have no power over the BPA other than we have two breed representatives allocated to help in matters pertaining to the BPA.
We strongly advise that if you have matters of concern with the BPA & pedigree matters you contact the breed reps who are listed on the BPA website.
Please remember they are unpaid and do this work for the love of the breed in their spare time.
Mandy
 

[Bodger]

The guy fom THE GOS club actually took the time to explain that their subscription ran from January to January and told me to hang on for a short while before I joined, so that I'd get my moneys worth from my subscription.