History of Agricultural Education in Wiltshire - Lackham Countryside ...

follow-on pens. Performance in these is mainly a function of the herdsman's skill
and application and Mr Hustler, the first man after Mr Stepney, worked them
satisfactorily, indeed the young pigs in his charge, mainly maiden gilts, achieved an
average of ten reared per litter. These pens have never worked very well despite
the efforts of half a dozen different herdsmen. However, Mr Fuller, with some
guidance from the consulting vet produced very high performance results.
The original 20 sow herd had meanwhile doubled and the Harper Adams fattening
house, after much patching and alteration, eventually gave way to a new timber and
masonite Suffolk fattening house for 200, at a cost of
£25 per pig place.
Lately the old Harper house has been converted to dry sow yards with concrete
block individual feeders. The steel ones had had to be almost continuously repaired,
the best set by far being those constructed by the old 260 (Mechanics) class under
the instruction of Mr John Hawkins.
The larger number of sows have given repeated problems of housing young pigs. A
bacon contract does not easily fit selling weaners, and the old buildings have not
been really satisfactory, but have had to be used. Thus, the next reasonable
development was new weaner pools, which at the time of writing are on the site of
the old covered yard. The farm is now an infinitely tidier place.
The closing down of the poultry department has released useful buildings, one of
which is in the process of conversion to a slatted floor crate-farrowing house.
There are also plans to develop the herd to 100 sows, and adopt stall housing for the
sows with flat deck weaner pens in controlled environment buildings, and verandah
houses for growers.
This is a far cry from the original conception, but in the march of progress it is
inevitable. An educational establishment such as Lackham has to move in this way,
to provide realistic facilities for the training and education of its students.[i]
POULTRY
Small as it has always been the Lackham poultry unit has mirrored an astonishing
rate of progress in a section of the British livestock industry. Beginning with the
free range hen in huts which now serve as sheds in the gardens of various properties
on the estate, the first step towards intensification was the development of modest
pebble yards. The old glass bottomed battery cages, the first real signs of
intensification which were introduced in the 1950"s gave way to highly automated
visi— chick designs. These were decimated by the necessity for hand feeding to
accommodate the Wiltshire Accredited Poultry breeders random sample laying
trials.
Meanwhile, the deep litter house for 1,000 birds was erected in the end of Fourteen
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