The first a BK breeder knows about a potential export to Japan is typically a phone call from an agent. He may have picked your name merely on a geographic basis - you are close to someone else on his list -and / or he may simply have seen you have litters registered on the BPA website. In Japan they apparently have massive barns with 1,000 BK sows in a single barn - but they still want new blood from us. Once you have exported you tend to stay on the agent's list, as you are familiar with the process and have proved your pigs are good.

Displaying Your Pigs

When you have agreed that you have pigs of the right sex, age and quality (only the very best will do for Japan, underlines must be perfect, also colour, markings and conformation) then an appointment is made for the agent to bring the client or his Japanese agents to view your pigs. For free-range pigs this entails catching them, washing them, and arranging a display area where they can be viewed. Half a days work?

The day arrives, hopefully the visitors turn up. Or they could ring and say "We have enough pigs now and we've run out of time to view yours. Terribly sorry old chap!"

Cest la vie.

Showing the pigs off, tipping them onto their bottoms to display their perfect underlines, offering tea and biscuits, putting the pigs back outside in their arcs - another day is gone.

Then comes the wait, and it could be a couple of weeks, for the verdict on whether they want your pigs or not. If they only want one or your pigs you have to decide if you want to be bothered - the effort is considerable. Two or more pigs and it is worthwhile.

As a preliminary you will have a general herd blood test for PRRS as any trace of this in your herd and you are excluded from exporting to Japan.
 

When Your Pigs are Chosen

Once an order is confirmed, then you need a 'pre-isolation' blood test for Classical Swine Fever, for all the selected pigs including any 'reserve' pigs.

The pigs go into isolation for 30 days either on your own holding or any other place approved by your vet.

In isolation there is another blood test. You do need a good pig vet to get blood from a pig. We were lucky - we had a good vet and also a pig-head-crush, which was a great help. This time the blood test is for PRRS, Classical Swine Fever, Brucellosis and Aujeszky's disease. Why the two blood tests for the selected pigs cannot be combined is illogical, but the agent said it was easier to just do it than to challenge the logic of the requirement.

Then there is blanket treatment for leptospirosis, two injections 10 - 14 days apart. Apparently it is normal to assume you have this, and treat it, rather than to test for it and await the results. Assuming all goes well there is just the paperwork and phone calls to the State Vet service within DEFRA. Again we were lucky, we had a lady in the Exeter office who really knew what she was doing and was most helpful.
 

Day of Despatch

Pigs from Devon (our Berkshires plus Landrace from Tavistock) were collected by the agent's transport. Then the lorry went to Glebe Farm in Warwickshire to collect mope Berkshires from Chris Coe & Kevin Major. Then on to Stansted ready for a flight to Japan the next day.

David Shaw, from Kiplin, North Yorkshire, and John Johnston, of Cruckley Farm, East Yorkshire, together drove their own BK pigs 270 miles to Stansted. They drove Sunday p.m. and were up at 05.00 a.m. the next morning to help load the pigs onto the plane. The pigs all had double-decker crates made to measure for them by the UK agent.

As the plane was 1 hour late taking off due to a volcano in Alaska, there was extra time available to ensure the pigs were really comfy in their crates.
 

Tremendous Expense

Besides the payment to the breeder, there are the Japanese agents, the UK agents, transport and hotel bills for the agents and clients as they tour Britain, the transporters, the vets bills, DEFRA (c/o the tax payer thank you very much to you all!), the flight....

Written by Sue Fildes, 07768 625333