The Farmers Mart Oct/Nov 2013 - Issue 30 | Page 24

ANNA LONGTHORP

Stress-free life
for Anna’s pigs
Chris Berry talks with Anna
Longthorp at Hayton Grange.
Anna Longthorp was just
eight years old when her
parents started pig farming,
and she has enjoyed them
and worked with them ever
since. She now runs one of
the most successful freerange pig businesses in the
UK and has won a number
of major awards.
The catalyst for Anna’s recent
triumphs as pig producer
of the year in 2010 and
Deliciously Yorkshire Supreme
Champion in 2011 was her
move towards free range.
“We’d always had pigs that
had been born and raised
outside but were then fattened
indoor, which made them
classed as outdoor bred,” she
explained. “But then we had
requests for us to go fully free
range and fatten outside as
well. I have always believed
that is a better life for them
anyway and I much prefer
them ‘au naturel’ roaming and
rolling around in the mud and
enjoying themselves. It is a
much happier way of life for
them and is stress-free.
“The push for free-range
pigs came largely as a result
of television programmes in
which celebrity chefs extolled

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Oct/Nov 2013 FarmersMart

the virtues of how pigs should
live. At the time I was running
the fattening side of our overall
pig operation that goes under
the title of LKL Farming. I
spotted this opportunity where
we could have a better control
over setting our own price to
customers - because we were
providing something different
to most others.”
The family farm, based near
Howden, was originally purely
an arable business growing
crops. The farming of pigs
came about in order to make
better use of the grain that was
being produced. Anna still has
‘outdoor bred’ pigs that were
born and weaned in fields but
are kept in large barns with
deep straw bedding, but it is
the free-range operation that
has taken off since the move
was made in 2007.
“My customers want high
quality meat and the female
pigs provide it. We select all
females at weaning and send
them here to Hayton Grange
near Shiptonthorpe where we
have 200 acres. They come
here at four weeks and I get
all the girls. It’s a bit like a
convent for pigs - they are all
virgins!” she smiled.

“At any one time we have
around 3,500 pigs here and
we are completing 300 a
week. They go at around
60-70kg deadweight if they
are going as pork joints and
90-100kg for cured bacon and
ham. We find that the sireline
genetics of the PIC 337 really
help us to produce carcass
quality – low in back fat but
with intramuscular fat for real
succulence and flavour.’’
Anna has three men working
full-time at Hayton Grange who
do what she describes as “the
hard slog”.
“It is not as technical or as
scientific as our other breeding
unit but it is certainly more
laborious,” Anna admitted.
“It is one continual round
of feeding up, bedding up
and selecting what goes to
slaughter - but we are all
working with animals that are
happy in their surroundings
and you can tell how much of a
difference that makes.”

The Longthorps have 2,100
breeding sows and their pigs
are based on a Landrace X
Duroc sow and Pietrain based
boar.

‘animals that are
happy in their
surroundings
and you can
tell how much
of a difference
that makes’
“The Duroc is well-regarded
as an outdoor breed with its
naturally thick winter coat and
hard skin,” Anna said. “This
allows them to survive the
cold and wet of winter (and
summers like last year!). Their
docility is another major plus
and succulence and heavy
muscling makes it very suitable
for anything from light pork to
heavy hog production.

To read more, visit www.farmers-mart.co.uk