Dedication and flair wins pig title for Andrew

When Andrew Freemantle won the title of Young Farmer of the Year four years ago, he little realised he would take another national championship.

Now the 39-year-old entrepreneur from Clyst St Mary, near Exeter, has been named National Pig Farmer of the Year.

"Twelve entered the competition and there was a shortlist of three," said Mr Freemantle. "The other two came from East Anglia and Aberdeen. The three judges came down by train and had a look at the farm, and also at our catering trailer that we have in the car park of the Mole Valley Farmers outlet at Cullompton.

"We have other trailers at South Molton and Newton Abbot, providing roast meals, an inovation that has gone very well.

"We must have impressed them to win the title. I was absolutely ecstatic when their decision was announced."

Harnessing high welfare standards and a strong regional identity to market fresh pork helped generate a £900,000 turnover from Mr Freemantle's 70-acre holding at Kenniford Farm, where he serves processing, retail and catering clients with pork from a 280-sow herd.

High welfare is a cornerstone of the indoor system. Visitors can watch as in-pig sows have free access to a paddock area and there are free-range farrowing pens.

"I've always believed in having high welfare and it's served me well," said Mr Freemantle, whose farm has RSPCA Freedom Food and LEAF certifications.

He explained: "I started out selling weaners in 1993 and built up slowly until the pig price crash in the late 1990s. That spurred me to open a farm shop on a shoestring, and despite foot-and-mouth disease closing it temporarily, we've built up a strong following locally."

Maximising returns for all pigs sold is a vital part of the success story. "We try to make the most of every pig we have," he said.

A growing hog-roast service, which travelled to 240 events last year, uses overweight or oversize pigs that would be penalised by processors. The catering vans at the MVF stores help address the issue of carcass balance, using up less-favoured cuts of pork. "I've tried to make the most of any opportunity that's opened itself," he said.

Looking back over the past 15 years, he remembered: "Things used to be so much easier then. There was a reasobnable living to be made out of pigs before the supermarkets became a lot more aggressive in their pricing. Now you have five big buyers and thousands of small producers.

"The problem is you can't store this stuff – you have to sell it, and the supermarkets know that only too well. It puts the producer in a very weak negotiating situation and you can feel very isolated.

"If you're getting a fair price for your pig meat then the consumer will be getting a much better deal, and a whole lot more money is available to be ploughed back into the farming business."

Dealing direct with the public meant the trade was being retained in the Westcountry, and if enough people were trading similarly real prosperity could be generated.

Mr Freemantle said: "We may not be able to produce cars in this country any longer, and we seem to import absolutely everything – but in farming we can regain some of the edge, if we are allowed to."

High praise for his achievement came from his feed supplier, Jonathan French, of BOCMPauls, who helped mentor the pig enterprise from the start. Back then there were three times as many pig farmers than there are now and farmers were being positively encouraged to enter the sector, he said.

The advice then was that the Freemantles' former dairy buildings did not lend themselves for conversion to pig-finishing accommodation, and that breeding would be more suitable. Pigs production had always been something younger farmers could enter easily, and there was the advent in the outdoor pig concept. The enterprise took off and through sheer hard work, and more than a little lateral thought has now achieved supreme recognition.

Mr French said: "Pig farming has never been in a better position to give someone a real opportunity to make a success of farming. At the moment the expertise of pig farmers in the South West is phenomenal, which is why it is proving such a success and why there's been such an investment in the sector."

He said that over the past 20 years his firm had organised working parties to travel to Denmark, France and Ireland to study successful pig farming, but now it could be witnessed in abundance right here in the South West of England.

"When it comes to output performance we have people in the business now who are absolutely stunning," he said. "And the consumers are learning that it is better to purchase pigmeat from home sources, where you may be sure there are proper regulations, than from Romania or Brazil, where the meat buyer will have no control over the production or welfare of animals.

"Andrew is a huge ambassador for the industry, and because he is so well known, winning this top award is of massive benefit to the pig industry in the South West."

The business has six full-time and many part-time staff.

Publication:  thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk
Publication date: 13 November 2008