Local Food for Thought in Waveney.

Eastfeast Project Report Bungay Pig Club September 2012 January 2013
Numbers: 12 shares in the club involving 41 people in total. Outcomes: 3 'large black' pigs reared from 8 weeks of age to 6 months. Businesses: Maisebrook Farm Shop, KW Clarke Butchers. Thanks to: Eastfeast Waveney Local Food for Thought, Mik Bedson and the Suffolk Acre Local Food Project, Atlantic Country Supplies, Sustainable Bungay, Keith and Greengrow

http://vimeo.com/55596045 Clip made by an independent web magazine www.wildculture.com showing preparations for the pig club. Please note, no editorial input from the pig club but thanks to all that supported us and Liam who shot and edited the clip. Introduction: Sustainable Bungay is a community group on the Norfolk/ Suffolk boarder in the Waveney Valley. They joked that their vision for a pig club was consistently one of the most read pages on their website www.sustainablebungay.com. Eastfeast Co-ordinator for the Big Lottery Local Food project called Waveney Local Food for Thought realised the potential of this community and a piece of rented land and the idea grew. With no experience, only the knowledge that we could do it together, the Bungay Pig Club attracted enough people to make it a reality. We coped with issues and decision making with at face to face meetings, group texts, emails and online sharing methods such as doodle polls and dropbox file sharing. What we learnt we hope will help future local food clubs.

CONTENTS:

1- Title and Introduction 2- Contents 3- Costs 4-6 - What worried us 7- Quotes from Pig Club members 8- Resources for future clubs

Also thanks to Suffolk Acre Local food Project

COSTS: Fencing costs:

Loan of wooden posts and stock fencing from Acorn Pig Club in Ipswich. This was bought by Suffolk Acre Local Food Project and is the second use for this fencing. Initially valued at 250. Electric fencing (300) was bought by Eastfeast Waveney Local Food for Thought. Thanks for the support. Bought from Atlantic Supplies with a club discount.
3 STRINGS ENERGISER (MAINS & BATTERY) LEADOUT CABLE (FOR MAINS POWER) EARTH STAKE GALVANISED STEEL WIRE 400 metre METAL POSTS X 30 INSULATORS X 90 (9 packets) SLOTTED END STRAIN INSULATOR X 12 WOODEN POSTS X 8 GATE HANDLE KIT X 3 INSULATED WIRE TENSIONER X X2 3 TOTAL With discount 116.00 14.08 7.01 48.60 68.00 33.12 12.36 30.00 22.53 10.50 362.20 299.10

Additional club costs:

OUTGOINGS ITEM straw bales materials materials pigs feed fuel to collect pigs materials feed materials materials torch feed slap herd feed fuel to get trailer, & transport pigs to abattoir clarkes skins 15 clarkes kill and dresses car wash 4 Vat 0.80 COST 37.50 16.04 37.90 105.00 5.00 15.00 15.00 272.00 16.70 29.68 2.99 16.00 28.24 16.00 50.00 Eastfeast paying 175.50 4.00 0.80 TOTAL 37.50 53.54 91.44 196.44 201.44 216.44 231.44 503.44 520.14 549.82 552.81 568.81 597.05 613.05 663.05

848.48

MAIN POINTS: Initial outlay on fencing would reduce future pig club costs. Buying electric trained piglets could ease fencing requirements Feed is next biggest outlay, if a source can be found e.g. greengrocer or farm surplus it would make a huge difference. We bought organic feed on a pallet delivered which worked well. Self butchery could also save money but we valued the experience of seeing it done and agreed it was worth it. 848.48 / 12 shares = 70.70/ quarter pig We didn't know if the meat we got would justify the money and effort. Many said the experience alone was worth it and we did get lots of meat. IF CHEAP MEAT IS YOUR MAIN AIM, DO YOUR SUMS!

MAIN WORRIES: The whole process was fraught with worries but we got over them and with help from others and our own experience we created a community of people with a shared story. Can we properly look after these animals? It's a big responsibility to start looking after pigs. Transportation of them needs thinking about. We made a pallet crate in a van to bring them to the pig club when they were small and borrowed a horse box to take them to the abattoir. Water supplies crucial esp if in winter when water can freeze. There was a large patch of land that needed clearing so we had the space. Will we be able to eat them after caring for them? One person found they couldn't and passed their share to a another person. The 3 pigs were named Magic, Velvet and Pudding as three names but individual pigs were not differentiated. Everyone had a different approach. Our pigs were male and apparently boar taint can affect the meat after 9 months. Ours were 6 months old. They were not tainted but still had a full taste which was stronger that supermarket pork. There was also extra fat than normal bought cuts. One inch of fat on the bacon but we heard stories of really fatty pigs. Choose your breed and don't feed them too much. Seeing them at the butchers being cut up to our requests felt OK as the pigs were halved, fairly blood free and looking more like meat. What legal and paperwork issues are there? There certainly are legal requirement to fill in some forms. Online processes which were pretty easy. Getting a County/ Parish/ Holder Number CPH, Herd Number, Movement registration. Customer Service Centre on 0845 603 7777. You cannot legally feed kitchen waste to the pigs so think about the source of food. We fed lots of windfall apples as we started in September alongside pig nuts bought in bulk. What if they get ill? Time of year important. If rearing for shorter periods is seems a waste of energy for the pigs to be eating to heat themselves. Our decision was a now or never one, leading us to a September start. We nearly didn't get to the abattoir as there was heavy snow in January. Register with a Vet. They don't need to visit you to register and it doesn't cost anything. Advice is that if anything did go wrong with your pigs it would more than likely be out of office hours and so it helps to be on your vets books already. Signs of ill health we were told to look out for were: straightening of their normally curly tail Oozing from orifices not eating What if they escape? We learnt that pigs not used to / untrained for electric fences probably needed training before they are put in an electric only fencing system. We lost 1 pig twice at the start as they get electrically shocked and push on through the fencing. A group effort and a heroic leap with a blanket caught the escapee. Second time round and exhausted bunch of pig herders using ply boards gave up, had a cuppa and returned to find the three reunited. Food and friends are important. Our solution was to put stock fencing up around them but as soon as they knew the fence they didn't really need it. Stock fencing gave us peace of mind and helped later on when moving them. Knowing what they can dig up I'd be keen to recommend stock and electric fencing but others disagree. Make sure the person who lives nearest has a say in this

decision. The breed of pig can affect the tendency of escape. Tamworths were often named as escapologists. What will we feed them? We opted for organic feed delivered on a pallet Advice given to us was this:
Age in months 2 3 4 5 6 Lb of feed/day 2 3 4 5 6 kg of feed/day 0.91 1.36 1.82 2.27 2.73 Total Kg/feed Cost of feed/kg Total Feed Cost/pig kg of feed/month 28.18 40.91 56.36 68.18 81.82 275.45 0.36 99.16

Based on 9.00 for a 25lg bag of food from Charnwoods in Framlingham

We paid 300 in total for 3 pigs so it worked out, but then again we followed this feeding regime. Some always gave extra to be nice, others gave less when supplementing with apples or other foraged feed. Foraging for food was great fun and involved many other members of the local community. If you find a legal source of feed it would make pig keeping reasonable. Who does what? How do we work as a group? How do we make decisions? Some skills were clearly useful, fencing knowhow, tools, admin, people care etc. It did feel that some people were relied on a lot. But different people had all sorts of reasons to add that bit extra: escape from their family; loved being with the pigs; only one with tools. Finding ways to value input is important even if just a big thanks you and a cuppa. If a pig club is held on someones land then there is always an element of responsibility for that person. Groups behaviour. There will always be problems getting everyone to meet face to face, answer emails and generally make decisions. Bungay pig club sent out texts and emails but generally the personal relations led to solutions when ever they were needed. Sometimes people just made decisions, but these were understood by the group when explained. The rota for feeding and checking water was decided below. (We took turns on Saturday pm via a doodle poll). In bad weather, holidays and illness people were asked to sort out a replacement themselves but the person on the land, if at home, was happy to help out as well.
PIG CLUB ROTA 8-10pm 4-6pm AM PM MON Julie Calum TUES Dano Janet WED Angie Lewis THUR Elinor Sally FRI Josiah Eloise SAT Dee SUN Roger Sarah

The group worked well and different people took on tasks e.g. liaising with the butchers, choosing and ordering the feed, choice of fencing and making cakes to share.

How do they get killed? Are we going to do it? We had differing views on what would be more stressful for the pigs: to be killed on site or to be transported to the abattoir. We were still uncertain if there where legalities involved with killing on site and also just how we would cope. In the end the removal of hairs and such like meant a job for those with the facilities. We decided to transport them. A horse box was borrowed and we enticed the pigs in for feeding a few days prior to departure. They were used to it and had a nice bed of straw. It was harder to get them out at the abattoir and they scurried round a corner never to be seen again. The abattoir is not horrid but certainly not a nice place for those who are squeamish. There was a rather macabre drainage/ fountain of blood to the left of the blue container office in the pic below. However once the pigs had gone we felt a huge rush of relief that we had completed the process, not lost the pigs, not had illnesses, treated them well, had snow chains available as we had needed them that day for the van. We were also relieved that we didn't have to kill them ourselves and we couldn't see it happen either. The photo below shows our borrowed horse box (thanks) being cleaned and the next smallholder delivering their pigs in the background.

What recipes? Which cuts? How do we make best use of the pigs? This was the time for the foodies. Old recipe books. Brawn, pate etc. The abattoir couldn't give us the blood or guarantee the organs would be from our pigs. We had slap marked the pigs to identify the carcases. (Bought online 15mm metal plate with sharp pins making the outline of our herd number, then borrow the ink and slapper from a local small holder). After giving our paperwork to the office (blue container), we waited a week and then turned up at a local butchers. We each had a quarter pig so we split into pairs and directed out friendly butcher to cut the chops we wanted. They packed and labelled everything making a clean, easy and informative morning. However a bag of organs and a bag of halved pig heads were also taken, looking a little macabre. Pate was made by one person and shared. Bacon joints were soaked in brine before being sliced. Freezers were filled. One of our club members had a sausage maker so all suitable offcuts was taken on a separate day out of freezers and minced, spiced and turned into sausages. A huge variety of flavouring were used. Pigs heads were not made into brawn for lack of a big enough pot and in part due to lack of motivation. After wondering what an earth to do with them, they were buried for educational purposes to be unearthed once a bare skull.

QUOTES FROM PIG CLUB MEMEBERS Brenna by text: we made our sausages today and ate some cooked over the fire....delicious! They even tempted me the (ex) vegetarian. Ha ha that's a good quote Elouise by email: Pig club was an amazing communal experience of rearing animals for meat. Alot of laughter,cups of tea,banging in posts,feeding pigs in the cold and dark and of course the great butchery day, sausage making and eating. An amazing experience of getting up and close with your food, something that was especially great to share with my children and friends and family. I would do it again tomorrow! Dano: I have learnt so much. The best bit was when we dropped off the pigs at the abattoir, the whole journey back I felt so relieved. The worst bit was being criticised for keeping animals and especially 'dirty animals' like pigs! The most memorable bit was the escaped little piggy with everyone trying to get it back in the pen. Eating your own reared local food is truly a magic moment and I made great friendships. If advising another group I would say find a suitable source of feed that was using something that would otherwise be wasted to make it more sustainable. Consider local food clubs for eggs and vegetables as well as the community bonding was the best outcome. Future community projects are more likely now there are such good bonds between us all. I would do a chicken club or a vegetable club next time....or all three Julie: I'm much more aware of where my food comes from and where to continue getting local meat from Maisebrook Farm shop has amazing meat and KW Clarke can sell halved animals. Dee by text: Keeping pigs a tough learning curve, really made me think about animal welfare in the meat industry. Think everyone who eats meat should be involved in rearing something they're going to eat! Met lovely people at pig club. xxx

Dano eating a homemade sausage, see the lack of plants in back ground after 4 months with pig rotavators. We then found homes for the straw bales walls, wood and tin roof of the shelter.

RESOURCES Keeping pigs advice from Defra. See page 3 for dos and don'ts before you start. http://www.defra.gov.uk/ahvla-en/files/pub-pigs-micro-pet.pdf Guide for new pig keepers. http://adlib.everysite.co.uk/resources/000/109/567/pig-new-owner.pdf Smallholder groups can give advice, news of who has pigslets to sell. They can charge a small fee to join them. http://www.suffolksmallholders.co.uk/ Breed of pigs advice http://www.britishpigs.org.uk/ Ipswich Pig Club that inspired us. http://www.the-oak-tree.co.uk/blog/2012/02/pig-club-progress/ http://ipswichpigclub.wordpress.com/page/2/ Pig feed we used http://www.hipeak.co.uk/prods/organic_pig_feed.html Slap markers supplier we used https://www.suppliesforsmallholders.co.uk/pig-slapping-tips-i-6.html Sustainable Bungay website www.sustainablebungay.com Eastfeast website www.eastfeast.co.uk Suffolk Acre website http://www.suffolkacre.org.uk/main.php/community_support_and_consultation/local_foods_s uffolk Atlantic Country Supplies http://www.newatlanticonline.co.uk/ Maisebrook Farm http://www.maisebrookefarm.co.uk/ KW Clarke Butchers http://www.kwclarke.co.uk/index.html