Black Beauty Pigs
Welcome to the Website
Black Beauty Large Black Pig Stud and Moonshine Ayrshires is located on the Cunningham Highway at Clintonvale, 17km North East of Warwick on the Darling Downs in Queensland.
It is a true “Old MacDonalds” Farm with Dairy Cattle, Southdown & Dorset Down Sheep, Large Black and Berkshire Pigs, an assortment of Poultry including Chooks, Indian Runner Ducks & Pigeons, 2 dogs and 2 cats.
The farm is situated on only 25 acres but the rich, fertile black soil of the downs enables us to grow good fodder crops when it rains.
Our aim is to preserve rare breeds of animals that have fallen out of favour for one reason or another over the years. Our cows, pigs and sheep are all hardy thrifty animals with excellent temperaments. The meat of the Large Black & Berkshire Pigs and Southdown and Dorset Down sheep is second to none in flavour.
In this website I will endeavour to write a monthly newsletter about the happenings on the farm and what we are doing.
I welcome any feedback or suggestions you may have.
August 2010Greetings for August. We have had a great August with a few good frosts and lots of glorious rain. Everything is green already which is quite unusual for August. It is going to be a beautiful Spring. Most of our Paddocks are ploughed at the moment so there will be plenty of moisture for planting, probably Millet to start with. It grows very quickly if the Sheep don't find their way onto it first! Speaking of Sheep, the Lambs are still coming, one little Ram Lamb is nibbling on my jeans as I write this. He is my first orphan for the year, I pulled twins out of his maiden mother last week and she wanted nothing to do with him! He is a 3/4 Southdown 1/4 Suffolk but looks just like a Southdown. The last of the Dorset Downs have lambed with Ewe Lambs and there are only 2 Southdown/Suffolks to go. With all these Lambs, I am going to have to sell the crossbred portion of my Ewes as I just don't have the feed to keep them, having only a small place so if you are looking for any Quality Meat Sheep as Breeders, I will post some pictures of them in my For Sale Section. I am also offering for sale one the Berkshire Sows as I have the two sisters and don't require 2 of the same breeding. My next litters of Large Black Pigs are due in October so I will have a bit of a break for a while. I had a lovely Ayrshire/Aussie Red Heifer calf born a few weeks ago and have a Heifer and a Cow due to calve next month. I am hoping (and that could be as far as it gets!) to start a Vege Garden this Spring, I haven't quite worked out yet where I am going to steal the time from to do this but I do have Big plans!!!!! There is nothing quite as satisfying as picking your own vegetables out of the garden for that nights dinner. It also encourages you to eat well I think. I do work 45 hours per week, plus travel time as well as caring for the animals before and after work so the time it takes to get the garden ready will be the biggest problem. Maybe I can barter some meat/eggs for someone to work in the garden for me. That would solve the problem! I think that's about it for August so until next month, Happy Farming Judy Barnet |