The waiting game

The Mangalitza was introduced to the UK at the end of 2006 and our first pigs, Mangal, Wurzel, Ginger & Pepper were from the earliest litters born in Britain in 2007. Apart from Tony York, who imported them, Rectory Reserve was the first place to start breeding these marvellous curly coats. So there wasn't exactly a lot of experience we could tap into. Ginger took us completely by surprise when she farrowed her first litter; "What do you mean she's had piglets? She can't have" said The Big Boss when I yelled the news across to him from her ark, where I'd gone to investigate her strange behaviour. "What do we do now?" I asked. "I don't know" he replied "I haven't read that chapter yet.....!!" It's been like that all along. The pigs have led us along a wierd and wonderful learning path, the details of which we could never have dreamt of when we were running a sane and sober management consultancy business 'down South'.

Nor at any stage in our lives preceding that.

Ginger is now 5 and a half years old and has produced two litters each year. Hence we are now awaiting her 11th litter. We have no idea if this is normal for a Mangalitza or whether she is over-the-hill and should be gently pensioned off. A commercial sow, for instance, would be 'sent off' after just 6 litters. Certainly Ginger sleeps a good deal - but doesn't any pregnant creature? Having said that, whenever anything's going on near her pen or somebody is in the vicinity, she gets up and ambles over to the fence for a closer look or a welcome scratch. It's no good creeping around her either - she's not at all deaf! She doesn't look in the least bit miserable either- she wallows like any of her younger colleagues and is ever eager for her food.

So, as ever; we'll let the pigs show us the way. She'll be farrowing any day now. We'll see how she gets on and take it from there..... she doesn't seem to mind the waiting game so why should we?