Third year on the trot for Beacon pigs

Rare breed pigs have been drafted in to help restore heathland at Beacon Hill Country Park for the third year on the trot.

Leicestershire County Council has taken stock of eight Welsh Pigs to help clear unwanted species such as bracken, sycamore and birch scrub.

By doing what they love best – eating, rummaging and turning over the soil – the real life rotavators will leave clumps of gorse, which is one of the most valuable heathland plants in the County Council run park.

The pigs have been borrowed from Brooksby Melton College (BMC) and it is anticipated they will help clear around an acre of land.

Byron Rhodes, County Council Cabinet Member for County Parks, said: We are delighted to invite our curly tailed helpers back to Beacon Hill.

The work they do help provides an excellent opportunity for the resident seed bank of species such as heather, bilberry and gorse to germinate.

We would like to thank Brooksby Melton College for once again supporting us with our heathland project.”

As well as providing the pigs, students from BMC also assisted county council rangers with the project by helping clean up the site over the winter and sowing heather seed.

Nick Marriott, Farm Manager at BMC, said: It’s great for us to contribute to such an extensive and important project.”

The pigs join Beacon Hill’s unusual landscape management team which includes a mixture of Hebridian and Manx Loaghtan sheep which keep down invasive species. There are also five alpacas who help protect the sheep and English Longhorn cattle, which provide the necessary grazing pressure for the site.

The pigs can be accessed via the top entrance of Beacon Hill, close to where the National Forest Wood Fair will be held on August 26 and 27.

For more information about Beacon Hill Country Park visit: www.leics.gov.uk/beacon

For more on Brooksby Melton College visit: www.brooksbymelton.ac.uk