Members' Blog

We caught up with the winner of last years Best Single Pig class in the Prime Pork competition, Rose Lewis to hear about her pig keeping experience!

To anyone that loves hard work, being outside morning and night before and after work or school and most importantly who loves pigs, this is the competition for you!

My name is Rose and last year I had the great opportunity to be able to enter the Prime Pork competition. I am glad to say that it was an amazing experience for me and the other young farmers like yourselves that got to compete.

You might be thinking “Maybe I’ll have a go at this competition”.. and I say go for it! If you are a person that loves animals, wants to know more about how to start a business and wants to learn more about careers in agriculture then start writing your application.

Over the course of several months there were many activities. The first thing that I had to do was collect my pigs, now you might be thinking that the collection is the most boring part of the whole process but when I tell you I will never forget it, I mean it. From putting them in the trailer to come home with me, to listening to the high pitched squealing of them being picked up by me and my dad and hearing how other competitors had some run aways, all I was thinking that night was that I was going to wake up in the morning to my dad squealing just like them, because they were all out and running around the yard – It’s OK they were not! Don’t let that put you off though because for the next few weeks I got to wake up in the morning before school and see them sleeping all together keeping each other warm.

Next up we had the amazing opportunity to have a farm tour. Now if someone asks you to go on a farm tour in October with young farmers and learn more about looking after pigs, first say yes and then make sure you have clean wellies, a coat and a warm hat, because you’re going to need them! Before we met on the farm we all had the same thought, “We will stop in Hay and Brecon on the way”, we could have been in a catalogue because we were all but matching. And we were glad that we were when it started to rain as we were trying to weigh and feed the pigs outside. We got a tour of all the housing facilities, got to see different aged pigs, meet some very friendly piglets, fed weaners, learnt how to vaccinate pigs correctly and the funniest experience was when we had to try and get one pig in to the weigh scales on our own. Now this might sound easy but think again, they are stronger and more determined than they look but it was great fun and we all managed to capture a pig in the end.

After the farm tour we washed off the mud, rain and some of the smell before we went to the village hall for food – my favourite part of the day! At the village hall we were given a wonderful talk with the local pig vet, it was very interesting an a great opportunity to ask any questions no matter how strange, to someone that actually knew what they were doing. We all had a great day and learnt new skills and facts that we could now use.

The next step of the competition was the Winter Fair! From the first day we had the pigs to the day before the competition our WhatsApp group chat was non-stop. But I have never before that first day talked so much about a pig’s diet and growth in my life, I think they had a better eating plan than me! Now before any show that I have been to before with any other animal, you need to wash, brush, polish, spray tan and glamorize them, but not a pig….

You might be thinking that is great because you don’t have a lot of time to get them ready, and you would be correct. I washed my pigs 4 hours before they were suppose to be put on the trailer and that was still enough time for them to get covered in mud and escape on to the yard, (this is when dad started to squeal). I will say it again, you need to love animals, after they escaped it took us an hour and a half to get them on the trailer. I love pigs. We finally got them on and ready to roll. The next few days just became one as I was up at early hours to clean the pigs out, feed them, clean them again and make sure that my white coat was ready for the day ahead of me. Now as a young farmer that had never walked a pig in the ring before I had no idea what to expect. Luckily, no one else did either, and that’s the best thing about a young farmers competition, it’s about having a go and having fun while doing it. And I can safely say that all of us did. We all had a prize but I think the experience that we shared was more important and it gave me more pride knowing that I had achieved getting the pigs to the show ground.

After this amazing experience we had the opportunity to talk to some very successful businesspeople. They talked us through how to strategize, costs, marketing, branding and how to use any contacts that we had. These talks helped us to understand what it took to be good businesspeople and how to make a future for ourselves if we wanted to.

Now this brings me to the end of my reasons as to why you should think about entering the Prime Pork competition. I might not have told you much about what I did, but I want you to think about what you could get out of this competition and trust me when I say it will be unforgettable.

One last thing to tell you that I haven’t mentioned is that I was the youngest member competing. Now don’t think that everyone else was very old, I was just not as old as them. But don’t let that stop you because in young formers it does not matter how old or young we are, but it does matter how much you care and how much passion you put into you hobbies. I hope that my long explanation of the competition will encourage younger and older members to have a go and take a risk to see what they could experience and achieve.