Nestling on the seaward side of the Mourne Mountains in Co. Down is a high-health status pig farm where the clean sharp air adds to the beauty of the green fields, drystone walls and the backdrop of the Mourne Mountains. Surrounded by the sea and mountains and with no other pig farms in the area, this is a unique site for a high-health pig farm.
Founded in 1976, the Glenmarshal herd is an SPF closed herd with all new genetics being introduced by semen or hysterectomy and the health status is at the very top end of the pyramid with health checks performed weekly.
The herd tested their pigs at the Northern Ireland Pig Testing Station from 1978 until the station closed. Being the top testing herd for many years, they also showed pigs at all the main shows winning many supreme champions and commanding top prices at sales for both boars and gilts. The business is owned by Trevor Shields and his two sons who still show pigs at the Balmoral Show purely as a hobby and have won more silverware than any other breeder in the last ten years, the most recent being in May 2014 when they swept the board in both the Landrace and Large White categories and took the overall Champion of All Breeds at the show! The judge at the show, William Gregory from Yorkshire, said the champion boar,
Glenmarshal Rope, was outstanding, being only eight months old and the size and depth of ham was fabulous, he had good ham, walked well and had a nice clean front.
As sales of boars dropped off and artificial insemination took over, Glenmarshal Sires, which grew out of the success of Glenmarshal Pedigree Pigs, was formed in 1990 and an AI Station was purpose built to accommodate the new venture. Glenmarshal Sires Ltd. started to sell Glenmarshal genetics and in 2010 introduced Danish genetics – the world leaders in numbers born and reared whose terminal sire, the Danish Duroc, was the top performer in an independent trial in Germany for growth rate, feed conversion and lean meat. In 2004 Trevor took the decision to start a new herd of 700 sows of high-health status to sell F1 gilts and re-stock farms. This has been very successful to date with herds recording as high as 29 pigs per sow sold from their re-stocks.
Glenmarshal Sires
89 Carrigenagh Road, Kilkeel,
Newry, Co. Down, BT34 4PZ
Tel: 028 4176 9400
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 2, March 2015
