Preseli Hills Farm means pigs, bees and computing

Helen Babbs visits a smallholding in west Wales that's raising the profile of local pork

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Pigs, bees and computers sound like a strange mix - but for Nic and Mikhaila Caine, this combination is making their smallholding enterprise thrive. “Nic’s a software developer, while I teach digital apprenticeships at the Northeastern University London,” Mikhaila explains, “but we wanted to start spending a little less time staring at computer screens - so we decided to keep pigs!”

MEET THE HERD

Nic had first looked into pig-keeping in 2019, but with the interruption of the Covid pandemic, the couple didn’t move to their smallholding in west Wales until 2023. “We have 25 acres here, on the edge of the Preseli hills,” says Nic, “plus an extra dozen acres we ‘borrow’ on my mother’s farm further over in Pembrokeshire.” After careful research, they decided on Oxford Sandy & Black pigs, and bought a breeding trio of a boar and two sows. “We looked at various different breeds, but OSBs stood out as being an ideal breed for ‘newbies’ - docile, friendly and easy to handle, with good quality, flavoursome meat too. Ours have certainly lived up to this, they’re brilliant,” Nic enthuses.

With Oxfords being listed as “At risk” by the RBST, Nic and Mikhaila like to feel they’re “doing their bit” to help preserve rare breeds too. “We now have four females, the two adult sows, Margot and Betty, plus two gilts, who are all from different bloodlines, and Brian our boar, who’s yet another bloodline. He’s very friendly,” Nic notes with a chuckle, “and absolutely daft about being brushed or scratched.”