On Farm Conservation. The total number of pigs and breeders goes up and down but this is not just a numbers game. With such a small population we have to make sure that our pigs don’t become inbred. We also have to make sure that our pigs are not all in one place in case we get another disease outbreak like Foot and Mouth in 2001. A donation of £250 can help us to move a boar from Yorkshire to Cornwall where he can be used on unrelated sows.
The second part of our Conservation programme is Genebanking. Sadly we can’t freeze pig embryos so we have to focus on storing semen from boars in our genebank. Since 2002 we have been working with the Rare Breed Survival Trust in a very successful partnership. We have a target of 100 boars and so far we have 88 in the tank. It costs over £2500 for each boar and we try to collect 6 each year. Please help us to complete this vital safety net by donating to our programme.
We are currently updating our conservation plans and these will be published soon.