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Home Our Farming and Sustainability BQP Case studies
In 1938 George Hillier senior took on the tenancy to Leys Farm in Norfolk. George kept a ten of old sows and a boar on the farm, as most farms did back then.
George’s family grew, with the two boys, George and Simon, both wishing to return to the family farm. So, in 1953 the opportunity arose to buy Leys Farm for the princely sum of £10,600. George (the younger) tells me that they paid 7 times more this year on the deposit for a tractor... more
Peter Bowen, commonly and affectionately known as Freddie, has been at Shaws Farm for over 40 years.
This year Fred has achieved his 100th batch of pigs with BQP. Mr Howard Revell, BQP’s pig production director and Fred’s first fields person presented Fred with his award... more
Tim has been a BQP farming partner since 2001, when the family decided to join BQP after many years as an independent pig breeder and finisher. Now running a high performing wean to finish system, Tim has converted and updated his buildings to ensure that they are well equipped to produce an efficient, high welfare pig... more
Steve is a 10th generation Northumbrian Farmer. His father and mother purchased High House Farm near Matfen in 1969.
In 1989 Steve took over the running of the farm and running two other tenanted farms, mainly focusing on cattle for beef... more
Jonathan has worked in the pig industry since being a boy, working on a state-of-the-art pig farm precollege in East Anglia, travelling to the United States to increase his knowledge of pig farming, finally putting down roots buying a farm and raising a family in the fens in 1986.
He initially set up a 70 sow herd to finish and built it up to 150 sows to finish. In 2006 he made the choice to get out of the sows and producing and finishing his own progeny to join BQP as a 7 – 100kg producer. .. more
John and his family are situated in the heart of Suffolk farming 2500 acres of which they own 1800 acres. They farm combinable crops plus sugar beet across the farm.
Over the years the family farm has grown from 500 acres in the 1960’s to the size it is now.
John was educated at Writtle University College doing a first an agricultural diploma moving to a National Diploma and finally finishing with an Agricultural business degree .. more
Mark and Mandy have been on the site in East Yorkshire for 28 years; building a successful farm which comprises 4 second-hand chicken sheds imported from as far afield as Cumbria and South Wales which they erected on site themselves.
Originally the farm was a broiler site producing 79,000 chickens which ran alongside another 2 rented sites producing 90,000 chickens per year. 15 years ago, the family reduced the flock size to stay under new IPPC regulations which resulted in them having two redundant buildings.
These two buildings were then converted into simple pig accommodation of two yards per shed; taking the pigs from weaning to 35kg – supplying a finisher for another company.
In January 2014 Mark and Mandy moved to BQP along with the finishing farm having converted all the houses to pigs along similar lines, supplying in the region of 5,300 weaners to BQP finishing farms.
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James runs the family farm alongside his Mum and Dad in Norfolk. Historically running a arable and cattle enterprise. In 2020 he decided to convert an existing cattle building into a modern pigs shed.
James left school at 16 and went to Easton college at the same time coming back to the family farm and in 2018 decided to diversify, one of the reasons for this was the introduction of TB rule 1 and 4 making it more difficult to keep the farm full all the time, also around that time it also became more expensive to finish cattle.
Grandad said “never put all eggs in one basket spread the risk” which is advise James has taken in the decision to go into B&B pigs. .. more
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