I’m Wayne and we’re a small, family run pig business here at Puff Pigs – you might have heard of us because in 2019 we won Best Sausage at the Royal Welsh Show.
I’m from Llanelli originally, but my wife and I were living in England when we decided we wanted to move back to Wales to start a family. We’re not from farming backgrounds, but we wanted to buy a bit of land and rear our own meat. For me it’s an absolute privilege to now have this beautiful space that we farm in Pontypridd.
We got started by moving to a smallholding up a mountain in South Wales and just started rearing a few weaners for the freezer. As the kids got older, by the age of 5 or 6, they wanted to do more and more with the pigs so we decided to enter the show circuit. That’s when we started breeding.
Our breed of choice is the British Saddleback, which we think is a visually stunning pig – but is also very hardy if you live up a Welsh mountain! This breed doesn’t lend itself to mass production, and there’s only 300 registered Saddleback sows in the whole of the UK. Part of our mission – as well as being able to make ends meet, of course – is that it’s important we contribute to saving this traditional breed.
We’ve also had wonderful backing from our local community too. They’ve really bought into the idea of somebody trying to produce something on their doorstep.
We’ve found demand has really been huge during coronavirus and the various lockdowns. People have really bought into not going to the supermarket, not being part of a mass gathering, and wanting to shop locally. I’ve heard the same from the local veg supplier, and the price of lamb was also higher this year. So I think people really have become switched on about the benefits of locally sourcing their produce – I just hope it sticks.
