Latest News
February 19th - Maryrose Lucy gave birth to 11 (we think it was bit dark when she finished) gorgeous piglets today.
February 11th - Michaela is now back from NZ and OZ and is not liking the snow very much!!
January 25th - Roses piglets at just 36 hours old
January 23rd - Muddylane Rose 506 gave birth to 12 piglets, they are by Tedfold Consort 2. 10 hours old in photos.
January 19th - Tedfold Molly 1 and 2 and Tedfold Depp's piglets are growing well (Photos taken on 13th)
January 7th - Tedfold Molly 1 gave birth to 12 piglets in the early hours. The father is Tedfold General 45.
January 3rd - Tedfold Molly 2 gave birth to 10 cute piglets this afternoon. The first picture is of the first one born, not one for the show circuit... but some of the others look promising. The father is Tedfold General 45 (DEPP) and these are his first piglets.
December 3rd - Fishkin Films and Documentaries came back to TCF to finish of the filming and interview us both. It was almost impossible not to look in the camera. They also asked us to recite the Three Little Pigs, so if that appears on the film it was not our idea!!
December 1st - The article about Tedfold Cottage Farm and the West Sussex Smallholders Club is out in the shops now in the Christmas edition of the SMALLHOLDER magazine. It was written by Michael Wale, who with his wife visited us towards the end of the summer. His wife even held a piglet for the first time!!
November 23rd - Today we hosted another ADAS/LHSE pig course, a government funded course designed for smallholders rather than the commercial guys. Todays topic was pig health and reproduction presented by Odelle Walker from ADAS and Martin the vet from Westpoint Veterinary Surgery. Great day if a little cold. Our pigs behaved beautifully yet again:)
November 13th - Todays pig course was filmed by Fishkin Films and Documentries for a 30 minute slot on TV!! I forgot to ask what TV programme but I'm sure we will find out in due course. He is visiting again for an interview so I can ask him then. Many thanks to the delegates for agreeing to be on film.
October 21st - I decided to take part in a government initiative to try and improve our on farm health with an "On Farm Health Plan". This was organised via the farm vets Westpoint and Kathy (the vet) came down to assess the farm and pick my brain on how I organise the pig herd and how I implement our bio-security. Although I am paranoid about our pigs health, there is always room for improvement and I look forward to receiving my results from "Part 1".
October 19th - I have finally uploaded one of our previous pig course delegates first piggy enterprise with a couple of "commercials". It is always nice to hear a success story which started on one of our courses.... thankyou Stephen. Click here for his story
October 16th - The British Saddleback Breeders Club held their AGM at Jimmy's farm in Suffolk. We had a great time chatting pig to many people we knew and a few we didn't. A great bunch of piggy people. We also had a tour by Andy Gready (the farm manager in the photo below) of the Jimmy's Farm breeding stock which is usually not open to the public, followed by a sausage based lunch and then a shopping spree.
September 21st - TCF hosted an ADAS / LHSE government funded meeting on the setting up of a pig herd with a guest speaker from BOCM Pauls feed merchants and handling pigs and piglets by Neil. Odelle Walker a consultant from ADAS provided the main presentations co-written by Richard Lutwyche, a well known breeder, judge & secretary of the BSBC and the GOSBC. We also had Rachel from Practical Pigs with us who will publish her findings on the meeting in a future publication of the magazine. Hopefully photos to follow as many people took some and fingers crossed will pass on. Also a special thanks from Neil and I to the WSSC who provided the marquee, tables and tea urn for the day completely free of charge, to Scats Countrystores who helped out with the parking and to all the delegates who happily car shared to get to our smallholding.
August 30th - TCF welcomes Marmite the Mangalitza to the farm, you either like them or you don't - I quite like the breed, Neil does not!!. She is from the Marringdean herd at www.woodlandtrotters.co.uk and is being kept purely to show course delegates an example of the breed.
August 28th - Clash Spot 142 came 4th in the Interbreed sow class at the Edenbridge & Oxted Show, up against sows she beat the day before!! Showing its a funny old game but it does make it more interesting. Ollie came 2nd in Young Handlers :)
August 27th - Clash Spot 142 won first prize in the Interbreed sow class and then took the Reserve Interbreed Champion Female at the Royal Egham Show. Not bad considering she was only weaned from her piglets 2 weeks before, so not looking her very best.
August 17th - Bell our saddleback had nine babies today
August 16th - Lucy our saddleback and Kim our Gloucester Old Spots both gave birth today. Lucy had three and Kim had nine.
August 4th to 6th - Mel was AI'd with pedigree GOS sperm, so fingers crossed she took for pure bred GOS babies in a few months!!
July 26th - Clooney is a Dad for the first time!! Lottie gave birth to 10 babies in the evening - 12 hours old in the pictures - so cute.
July 17th - We were at the Rare Breed Show at Singleton. We took another WSSC members pig to show as Michaela was primarily there in her capacity as the West Sussex Smallholders Club Chairman.
July 2nd -3rd - We were at the Smallholders Show at Ardingly with the West Sussex Smallholders Club. We took a few pigs and were advertising our pig & smallholding courses alonside Mark & Bess from Ardingly Arks. As chairman I also did a fair amount of networking with the other smallholders & we finished the day at 101 smallholdings in the club....A CLUB RECORD!!!!
July 2nd - Muddylane Rose has given birth to 10 babies - more fingers crossed for next years show girl
July 1st - Clash Spot has given birth to 10 babies. Fingers crossed for next years show girl.
June 26th - Freya "our assistant" helped us out feeding the sheep. She aslo cuddled some piglets (for sale page) and held some chicks (home page)
June 18th - Mel (Exfold Princess) one of our Gloucester Old Spots has given birth to 6 piglets (GOS x SB) which are rumoured to be the perfect meat pig!! There are 2 GOS looking and 4 SB looking. First photo's taken during the birth, last two on day 3.
June 14th - Our Oxford Sandy & Black gave birth to six very cute spotty pigs (OSBx Kune Kune), mum and babies doing well. The gilts would make very cute outdoor reared pet pigs.... please note they are NOT micropigs as there is no such thing.
June 9th to 11th - The South of England Show at Ardingly: Tedfold Consort 2 (Clooney) came 2nd in the July born BS breed class but his behaviour was atrocious, which the judge said meant he had to mark him down and so he will be retiring from the ring - he just cannot cope with the smell of "ladies". Tedfold General 45 (Depp) and Tedfold General 51 (McGregor) were better behaved and achieved a respectable 3rd and 4th place against some of the best January born boars in the South.
The Tedfold team also had a piggy chat with Prince Edward who was visiting the show, I resisted the urge to hand over one of our pig keeping course advertising cards!!
June 4th - Framfield Consort 741 (Swaysie) has left us to start a new BS breeding programme with Paul and Nikki Robson in Shipley Bridge nr Gatwick (www.westlands-rarebreeds.co.uk). He had a nice bath before he left and 30 seconds after arriving in his new pen.......
June 3rd - AT LAST we have finished lambing. The last ewe gave birth to lovely twins all doing well!!
June 1st - check out the size of a fleece from the pampered sheep at www.woodlandtrotters.co.uk. The chap sitting on it is almost 6ft.......
June 1st - Sheep shearing day! We use a chap called Glyn from mid-sussex 01444 811129 or 07989511191. Superb job as usual and nice and quiet with the sheep.
May 14th -15th - Tedfold Consort 2 or Clooney to his friends was awarded Reserve Breed Champion at the Nottingham and Newark Show.
May 11th - Our second Molly gilt gave birth to 4 saddleback babies.
May 1st & 2nd - Tedfold Cottage Farm were at the Grow Your Own Show at Loseley House Guildford. Michaela was in the Ask the Experts marquee talking about pig keeping and then sheep keeping on both days. One highlight was meeting the Jimmy Doherty TV show "A Farmer Life for Me" winners Ray & Jayne. Check out their website www.journeymans.co or order their products through the Jimmys farm website. Here they are kindly posing with Tedfold Bell and Tedfold Lucy.
April 24th - A lovely litter of 5 saddleback piglets born to our Molly gilt and our Consort boar. The photo's show the birth of piglet number 3 and then four of them suckling at approx an hour old.
April 16th - New pigs at Tedfold. Louise the Berkshire and Bluebell the Middle White. Pictures to follow once they have unburied themselves from their straw bed!! Purchased purely to show our pig course delegates examples of some different breeds of pigs.
April 10th - Tedfold Consort 2 "Clooney" had his first stick and board lessons, his first bath and then up to the house while Neil and Ollie had a drink!
March 19th - 3 young badger face ewes and 3 lambs finally joined the woodland trotters flock of overindulged spoilt sheep, www.woodlandtrotters.co.uk
March 13th - Our first pig exports.... OK so only the IOW but it's a start!! They are now in the expert care of Jeremy and Wendy.
March 8th - Poor Valentine the ram died today, one minute he was leaping about with some shearlings playing, next minute he hit the floor. A very sad day but later in the afternoon one of the ewes gave birth to the most handsome of ram lambs who just might make a nice replacement!!
February 26th - And so the lambing starts..... a couple of cute ewe lambs were born on Saturday followed by a single ewe lamb on Monday. So very cute and brought indoors because of the rain.
January 29th - A rather nice trio of our lemon-pyle Brahmas joined Nadine "the brahma breeder of Norfolk" and her flock. If you are looking for Brahmas in any colour then take a look at her website www.norfolkbrahmas.com and give her a call.
January 15th - Attended a butchery and charcuterie course at Thyme@Southrop with Athena of www.woodlandtrotters.co.uk. The course was taught by Marc-Frederic the only french trained Le Charcutier Anglais in the UK. He teaches from various UK venues and can be found on the website www.moorishfoods.com. We took home various pieces of charcuterie, some to eat immediately and some to continue curing at home. We also sampled a few of the cured treats.
January 4th 2011 - Our Lottie gilt gave birth to 14 beautiful little piglets. They are by Stephen Booth's very rare General boar and so the boys will be checked out very carefully. Some will be for sale in a couple of months.