Berkshires at the Turriff Show
Dennis Johnstone
Uploaded October 2008

The Berkshire exhibit went down extremely well at the Turriff Show, here in NE Scotland, and I'II provide some more details later. In the meantime, I thought the club committee would appreciate the news that even though we were not competitively showing our Berkshires, one of them still managed to pick up a first p lace. Our two boys, Fionnlagh and Donnchadh, both entered animals in the children's pet parade at the show. Fionnlagh, 8, entered Ieash-trained, birth-notified Berkshie boar by the name of Basil (seven weeks old), while Donnchadh entered a trained Scots Grey cockerel by the name of Squawk (12 weeks old). They were up against a large field of children with dogs trained to varying degrees!

Fionn and Basil did extremely well, waiting patiently in front of the members' stand for their turn to walk out into the show ring and then walking out with style. Basil loftily ignored the milling dogs and after being viewed by the judges, enjoyed a nap while he and Fionn awaited a decision. (Donnchadh and Squawk also did well). To the boys' surprise and delight, Fionn and Basil picked up first prize while Donnchadh and Squawk picked up second. It was excellent recognition of the work Fionn has put in, training Basil to walk on a leash and to be confident in noisy areas with large groups of people. So, a Berkshire pig has won first prize at a Scottish agricultural show for the first time in many years, possibly ever.

As for Basil's lineage, his dam is Styberry Mermaid 59 (owned by ourselves, bred by Stephen Green, Nandana, Lancs) and his sire is Lammermuir Namatjira 2 (owned by ourseIves, bred by Elaine Stebbings, Hoardwell Farm, Berwickshire). Our favourite moment was when one of the two judges asked Fionn what he'd being doing with Basil. Fionn's reply: "We'II eat him. I'm having his liver with bacon and onions."

Show Report
As you'll be aware, my wife Linda and I took 13 Berkshires to the Turriff Show, in north east Scotland on 3 and 4 August. The show secretary , Bruce Ferguson, extended as special invitation to us to stage an informational exhibit on the breed and on rare breed pigs in general.

Bruce, who put a lot of trust in us as we're a fairly small operation with limited resources, provided us with a prime 10-metre wide pitch directly adjacent the main thoroughfare through the show ground and immediately behind the grandstand. As well as providing us with a free pitch, the show organisers paid £250 towards our costs, provided stewards to help man the exhibit and provided free hospitality for the entire two days.

The final exhibit was centred on two pens of pigs: a sow and a litter of 10 seven-week old piglets in one, and an in-pig sow and 30-week old gilt in the other. The two sows and the gilt are all registered pigs, while the piglets are birth notified.

To meet health and safety requirements, and to maintain some level of bio-security, the pigs were penned inside electrified netting with crowd barriers erected half a metre outside that. The double-penning, with a higher outer barrier and a lower inner barrier, gave people an excellent view of the pigs while keeping them just outside arm's reach.

The electric pens wrapped around the two livestock trailers that we'd used to transport the pigs, allowing us to use these as housing as well as and the pigs were locked into these from 8pm until 6am. I camped beside the trailers but had no problems as tight security kept the drunks and yobs away.

We set up an informational stand beside the pens, with three large display boards and a table of leaflets. The stand was sheltered by a gazebo, which served as our base throughout the show. The display boards carried photos and information about our pigs, information about the BPA, particularly registered pigs and the pedigree pork scheme, information about the RBST, and information about the Berkshire Pig Breeders Club.

From the moment we arrived at the show early on the Sunday, we were deluged with visitors as pigs had not been seen at the show in 30 years or more.

The litter of piglets was a major hit with children and also with several groups of disabled people. We ended up with people 12-deep along the frontage of the exhibit (10m across the front, 11m down one side).

An inch and a half of rain fell on the showground the day before the show, with another inch on the Sunday night. It made for muddy conditions but as the ground was very compacted below the turf, it posed no difficulties for the pigs. In fact - they loved it!

With the exception of 30-minute lunch breaks on both days, I manned the stall throughout and never stopped talking about Berkshires, rare breed pigs, pedigree pigs and the state of the pig industry. It meant talking from 7:15am until almost 8pm on the Sunday and then from 6am until 4:30pm on the Monay - and resulted in mild laryngitis for me.

Interestingly, few of the farmers under 50 that I spoke to had seen pigs at all and almost none of the general audience had. The older and retired farmers were very pleased to see pigs again as most of them had kept traditional breeds on mixed farms until the 1980s.

Bruce Ferguson has now asked us to return next year, and there may be an opportunity to expand the exhibit to encompass a couple of other breeds if we can maintain the standard. I believe the Tamworth Breed Club's Scottish representative is trying to get Tamworths into a couple of Scottish shows and GOS breeder I met at Turriff might be interested in bringing some of his pigs to a future show.

All in all, it was very successful for us, for Berkshires, and for rare breed pigs in general.

I've made some photos available here: http://www.donjon1.demon.co.uk/images/TurriffShow/

Dennis Johnstone

email: dennis@donjon1.demon.co.uk
Blog: http://stonehead.wordpress.com