BPA Chairman

Alan Rose has been elected Chairman of the Council of the British Pig Association. Council members elected Alan at their meeting on 2nd December. Alan was previously Chairman of the Technical Committee and Deputy Chairman of the Traditional Breeds Committee. He farms in Somerset with his wife Pru and in the following paragraphs he describes his involvement with pedigree pig breeding and his plans for the development of the Association.

It is all down to my wife, Pru, that we got involved in pigs at all. When we moved down to our first farm in Devon we had joined the RBST and she decided that we should get a pig. A Gloucester Old Spot to be precise. So we went looking and found one in South Devon. When we got it home and did the paperwork we discovered that it had not been birth notified and so could not be a pedigree pig. So we went out and found one that could, at the same time applying to the then NPBA to grade up the first one, as we did know both sire and dam. So our foray into pigs proved both educational and irritating. Since that time we have kept, bred and shown, Gloucester Old Spots, British Saddlebacks, Middle Whites, Large Blacks, Landrace, Large Whites, Berkshires and of course, Durocs. We have had some success in both breeding and showing over the thirty years.

Our first herd was brought to an abrupt halt in 1988 with the contraction of Aujesky’s disease; we were the last herd on the mainland to go down with the disease. Our herd was destroyed in the interest of getting Britain free of the disease.

So, in our first ten years of pig keeping we had highs, lows, interest and adventure, grading up a Middle White Line, Deborah, who on first appearance won the July class at the Royal Show, her first!, followed by devastation. Having your herd forcibly taken from you for any reason is an awful thing to happen and is still difficult to talk about, even now.

Then we moved to a new farm in Somerset, managing to re-stock with some of our own British Saddleback lines, Babble in particular, and the arrival of the Durocs, kept the Maddaford Herd going. During all this time, starting at Higher Maddaford Farm in Devon, I wanted to get involved in the pig organisation that given us a lot of fun and made us many friends.

So, when the British Saddleback became part of the Minor Breed Committee, I stood as one of the Reps, and much to my surprise I was elected, this was I think in 1987, and I have been serving the BPA ever since.

I have been involved on both Modern and Traditional Breed committees at the same time, served a term on the old MPPR committee, represented Minor Breed Committee at Council and recently been asked to serve on the Executive as well.

Not only have I been involved in pig politics inside the BPA, but I have represented it on government committees such as the Salmonella Monitoring Committee. I am an active member on the Assured British Pig Technical committee as well.

I have also been actively involved with the NFU on its Regional Livestock Committee, on which I served for 15 years, retiring only to put more time to the BPA.

As to the future: The BPA is in an interesting position, the potential to develop it both as a body to look after pedigree pigs and expand all aspects of pedigree pig keeping, but also bring in a very large body of small pig keepers who have one or two pigs but very little in the way of directed support and information. The potential to expand the members’ base of the BPA to between 2,500 and 3,000 is a realistic probability. The key is to be able to service their needs and aspirations, so the organisation and its representatives need to be able to think outside the box.

One of my ambitions would be to try to produce a financial model for the BPA over the next three to five years, where the membership subscription pays for the whole of the office staff and administration. This makes it self-sufficient, leaving the income from investment, export certifications and other add-ons as the cream on the cake, but these funds would be used to help fund the projects from the sectors, and also, since we are a charity, possibly to help fund research bursaries from students, pre and/or post graduate, which would be directly pertinent to the aspirations of our organisation.

The job of the Chair would be to help, encourage, delegate and evolve policies to grow the organisation, to act as mediator, but most important, to be an independent adjudicator, balancing up the wants and needs of all the sectors, and those to come, to encourage people to keep and record pigs and have as much fun with them as we have, so far.