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March 2008
Pig rally's and frog spawn
It's possible you may have seen us on TV or heard us on radio in the last few days - if you haven't you have probably heard or read about the feed crisis affecting British pig farmers. We have been surprised and delighted by the media coverage since recording 'Stand by your ham' and with yesturdays (4th) Westminster Rally. We hope the message has been made loud and clear - please buy British pig meat which has the Quality Mark on it. A strong demand from consumers will send the clearest message to the supermarkets that British people want local, high welfare meat and they need to pay more to save the industry from disappearing. Even better than buying from supermarkets buy from local butchers who source their meat locally - best of all buy from Walter Rose!
The children are completely fed up with their parents being interviewed and filmed but the arival of radio cars and TV satellite trucks at the farm is still pretty exciting. However, more exciting than all of these things is the arrival of some frog spawn - maybe at last Alasdair will have his longed for frogs in the pond!
4th March 2008 - Westminster pig rally
Today started very early - the BBC film crew arrived at 5am wanting to do three live interviews at 6.20am, 7.20am and 8.20am. It was bitterly cold that early and very frosty, not as cold in the pig pens where they filmed the interviews. Talking live on Camera while being chewed vigourously by pigs is quite difficult! The BBC reporter Graham Satchel was actually bitten by one pig - he was very professional about it! The pigs are not being agressive - simply curious. Just as we though we had finished we were asked to do another interview for BBC News24 at 8.50am. Once this was finished we had to change and dash for the train to London. We drove into Hungerford station just as the train pulled out! The hours wait meant Cameron could catch up on some phone calls.
The pig rally itself was very well supported by about 500 pig farmers and supporters plus a lot of media people. We weren't very late, although we missed presenting the petition with 13000 signatures to Downing Street we were able to take part in the rally in Whitehall singing a few rounds of 'Stand by Your Ham' and meeting Winnie the pig - a 9 year sow, veteran pig campaigner! We also were able to meet our MP Michael Ancram who was very supportive.
We had a bizarre but encouraging day so thank you to everyone for their support and thanks to our staff who held the fort back home and dealt with all the media disrupting their work. We couldn't have taken the time off without our staff covering for us. This campaign is about them as much as us - it is their livelihoods as much as ours - it is them that help us keep our pigs to high standards of welfare.
Now life will return to normal we have meetings with our accountant this week and bank manager next week - this is the serious bit!
Happy Easter
What an Easter - hail, rain, snow, gales - and a bit of sunshine. We managed a Good Friday walk from Devizes to Roundway Down. This is an annual walk for people from all the Churches in Devizes to mark Good Friday. A replica wooden cross is carried all the way from the town and erected on the downs. The weather stayed fine (just) and it was a very special occasion. We have done this walk most years and in all weathers, this was probably one of the coldest although it did stay dry. We have pushed and carried the children over the years and it's really nice they can both now walk all the way without assistance. They still have energy to run up and roll and slide down the steep scarp of Roundway Down.
We marked Easter Sunday with a Dawn service on the hills, this was very evocative although bitterly cold. It began to snow as we enjoyed a hearty breakfast following the service. The children were delighted of course and had a happy hour playing outside - the first and maybe only snow of the winter. Us old ones were pleased the snow soon melted.
However cold and grey it has been spring is definitely here. The blackthorn is in flower, the frogspawn is turning into tadpoles and I cheer myself up by looking for the early flowers and buds in the garden. We have been enjoying the white and purple violets in the lane on the walk to School and the daffodils and primroses are in flower in the woods at Soley. Spring warmth is coming!
Email: Naughton@Farming.co.uk