[Fowgill Farm]

Following on from the comments made on Liam's Saddleback topic, I thought it may interest some of you to see the most recent breed survey results.
Numbers are significantly
hope you can pick up the doc took me an hour to upload it!
mandy

[SallyintNorth]

No surprise that numbers have nosedived overall and in most breeds, I suppose 

[Tala Orchard]

No surprise there even when the BPA them selves say there is no money in rarre breed or native pigs. The high cost of feed and the small if any return is killing the British Smallholder as a pig breeder.

[Liam_86]

This makes me think about breeding pigs even more.

I was discussing with my mates last night and we are going to get into breeding our own. Seeing that has just helped me make the decision to buy registered stock and breed from there

[Berkshire Boy]

The problem with BPA figures is that it most probably shows how many people have left the BPA not actually how many have got out of pigs.

[shygirl]

are they tamworth sow figures correct? down to 107 from 500 in 12 mths??

[Fowgill Farm]

are they tamworth sow figures correct? down to 107 from 500 in 12 mths??

No its a typo sorry told you i had porbs with uploading it as a doc
 should read 407 
Mandy

[shygirl]

phew. not good figures. maybe BPA will lower their fees to help the small breeders. 

[danconfessed]

I agree with BB. It shows those that are registered with the BPA, not pig keeping in general!

[Fowgill Farm]

The problem with BPA figures is that it most probably shows how many people have left the BPA not actually how many have got out of pigs.

Agree BUT only people in the BPA can register pigs as pedigree for the breeds listed so its a good indication of the numbers pedigree breeding, admittedly it does not account for all those who have pedigree pigs and breed but choose not to birth note or register. For me the most worrying trend is the Saddlebacks & Berkshires who seem to have lost a good number of sows over the last two years as ever the GOS remain steady but bear in mind 800 of their 1524 are in one herd. The number of breeders lost to these 3 breeds alone in two years totals 319 which is a staggering amount of breeders to lose between 3 breeds.
Mandy

[Rosemary]

Does the BPA have an action plan?

[oaklandspigs]

Does the BPA have an action plan?

Increase fees to make up for lost income !!!

[SallyintNorth]

Does the BPA have an action plan?

Increase fees to make up for lost income !!!

That's not an action plan, that's a death wish

[oaklandspigs]

This makes me think about breeding pigs even more.

Liam, Glad you're thinking like that, but make sure you work out how to sell the litters - rare breed pig keeping will only work if we encourage people to buy and eat pigs !  You'll need to spend more time creating demand for your weaners and meat than you'll spend breeding !

[oaklandspigs]

[
That's not an action plan, that's a death wish

 

But it's the only one they'll come up with.

Unfortunately the BPA seems to only worry about registration costs.  the committee structure underneath is so large that no decisions are ever made.  As for promoting pigs apart from the very welcome Practical pigs they launched a couple of years ago, there's no money for it, so they reply on the NPA for most of pork promotion, and the NPA, whilst it does much good,  is really about the indoor commercial market.  BPEX who we all pay levies into don't consider small scale farming as part of their remit, as the small boys only contribute 2% of their income.

So basically it's up to all of us to promote locally, educate (children in particular), inform and generate demand.