28 March, 2011
There was a knock on the back door on Saturday afternoon, just after lunch.
I went to the door to find a gentleman waving official ID and clutching a large satchel of envelopes.
“Census collector. I need to confirm your name and address, then explain the forms.”
It was straight forward and took about five minutes.
I thought that was that, until the collector said, ” Those are nice looking Berkshires you have…”
I’m afraid that’s not a good way of ensuring the census rounds are a done quickly and efficiently, as the conversation veered off the census and onto pigs.
It turned out the collector had kept pigs in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
He’d not kept Berkshires but had heard about their qualities as porkers and was keen to know more.
I gave him a bit of background on the breed and why we keep them. He contrasted them with the breeds he’d kept.
“So, what do you charge for a weaner,” he said. “They must go for a fair bit these days.”
“Not really,” I said, “ours are costing us £65 at 10 weeks but customers expect to pay £25-35.”
“What! I used to pay £35 for weaners in 1990/91. Costs can’t have stayed the same since then.”
I shrugged, ”I’m told it’s the market price and we shouldn’t be in it for the money, anyway.”
He snorted, “People are clueless and greedy, aren’t they?”
I nodded.
We started talking about litter sizes, birth weights, weaning weights, slaughter weights and finishing times.
I mentioned that we’d lost quite a few piglets recently. He said that while he hadn’t bred pigs himself, just kept them for finishing, some of the producers he used to buy from would sometimes apologise for not having pigs for sale as sows had killed most or all of their piglets.
“It must be one of the harder things about breeding pigs. You can take all the care in the world and still find a litter of piglets dead in a matter of minutes,” he said.
“But, the upside is pigs are just great to have around and great to eat too!”
We laughed, and the collector said he’d better get on with the job as he didn’t think he’d be able to get away with delivering census forms to half a dozen pig houses.
I told him to call around at any time and if I was here, I’d give him the tour. He said he’d hold me to it and went on his way.
It’s always a pleasure to talk pigs with knowledgeable visitors, even ones who bring us more paperwork to fill in.
what a lovely post – nice to see that some people are still able to make time for the old fashioned idyl of having a “friendly chat” – good for you and your cencus man
We got our form as well – but I went with the online option. And ticked the boxes for speaking etc in Scots as someone told me “if you can watch Gary Tank Commander or Chewin the Fat and know what they’re saying, you speak Scots”. Good enough for me.
Sounds like you could have a return visitor, there.
Our census here in Canada will be done this spring, too. I used to have fun with the paper work when I was younger, but now it’s just one more thing to do.
Great post. I love making small talk about such things with strangers who appreciate the same things I do.