From the Chairman
Uploaded March 2010

I hope all of you have been managing through the recent cold spell; we have had the most snow here that I can remember since we started with pigs back in 1992. Because we don't live where we keep our pigs we have to travel and that has been hard work our normal 10 minute journey taking nearer 40 minutes at a crawl so I am glad it has all gone now and hopefully we will soon start to get a bit warmer.

BPA There are one or two items coming up at the next Council meeting on which that we as a club would appreciate some input on from our members:

• Herd Inspections What are your thoughts on having a BPA inspection '? (this would only involve anything BPA related.)

• Late notifications of litters

• Identification of pigs Do you feel any changes should be made to the present rules on Double Tagging and Ear Notching. ? (Currently pigs intended for Breeding &/or Showing have to include their Pedigree identification which in the case of Berkshires is Ear Notching.)

As breed reps Chris Coe and I need to provide feedback on how our members feel so if you have any thoughts ideas on the above please get in touch.

Proposed Club for Under l2's Tracy Bretherton is very keen to get the junior members a lot more involved and to this end is hoping to start a new club for the under l2's. Any breed pigs or no pigs and any child is welcome to join. Tracy can be contacted on 07884 071924. gracebankpigs@yahoo.co.uk

AGM The AGM will be at Glebe Farm by kind invitation of Chris Coe who always does us so well. (details attached). I very much hope to see a good number of members there. So please put the date in your diary (Sunday 25th April) and send back your booking form to help Chris over catering numbers. Chris has also generously invited the Middle White Pig Breeders Club to hold their AGM later in the day so we will be getting together with them for lunch.

The Club Displays We have now a spare set of boards since we have the new displays. We would like someone to take these spare boards on and carry them to shows up North with leaflets. If you can help do please get in touch with me.

The PG Wodehouse Society The PG Wodehouse Society has very generously agreed sponsorship again for our Champion of Champions and has also sponsored a new pop-up display to add to our set. This will carry their logo and the picture of Stephen Fry previously featured on our newsletter cover. We are grateful to Stephen Fry for all owing us to do this, and to the PG Wodehouse Society for their continued support and encouragement. We really enjoy having their company at Newbury in September.

Keeping Berkshire in the Herd Book There is concern in the BPA that a lot of people who buy a pedigree pig do not actually join, which then means any pigs they breed are lost to the Herd Book. Please, when you sell stock, do as much as you possibly can to follow through to ensure the buyers and their pigs are not lost to us, and to the breed. You can get leaflets from the BPA to pass on to the people you sell to, and make up a little pack to go with the pig/s We really need to try to encourage people to join when they first buy a pig. The BPA will also follow up using the details on the Transfer form.

For those who are showing this year best of luck and to all those producing pork products keep up the good work as people are realising that Supermarket stuff is not as good as home produced.

STOP PRESS: Sale of Traditional & Native breeds to be held at Shrewsbury Auction Mart on 3rd July 2010. Contact me for details.

Sharon Barnfield
sharonbarnfield@ukfarmers.com
Tel;01989 750079