Woman loves pigs so much she moved to the country and started a farm

Life in the city isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be – at least that was what one woman from the north of England found. Martha Roberts was born in Sheffield and lived in various northern cities as she travelled around for the Royal Mail.

But in 2012 she became set on living a simpler life. So she dropped everything, moved to Abergavenny, and started her own smallholding on a farm on a hillside outside of the market town. Now, Martha has Sugarloaf Mountain and a glorious rural landscape all around her – she’s truly immersed in the elements. And it’s also in her blood, as her grandparents used to own and run the farm she now occupies 40 years ago.

Martha said she felt grounded now, connecting with animals and nature. She still works for the Royal Mail but now travels less and works from home as much as she can. This has meant she’s been able to spend as much time as possible on the farm and with her pigs. You can get more story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.

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Martha said: “It’s made me a happier person. And there is a lot to be said for doing something different with your life. The thing that I’ve thought about over the years is that there is an expectation that you’re one thing and I just don’t think that has to be so. I think everybody can be more than people expect of them, or more than what they’ve done for the last 10 or 20 years. You get something much different out of being on a farm, rather than working behind a screen at a desk.

“It’s a different kind of hard work and something I have really enjoyed. When the weather’s glorious, and everybody’s well it’s absolutely lovely. It’s not always like that but sometimes it is.”

While not everyone understood her decision at first, Martha has now settled into an incredible life at her farm. She said: “I think some people thought I was having a bit of a mid-life crisis when I first moved. But some family and friends really enjoy coming to the farm now and can see why I do it.”

Martha said she’d become attached to a few of the pigs on her farm over time. She has many pigs she’s kept for breeding for a long time, and has given a lot of them names. The rest are kept for meat, usually for about six months.

She also has a couple of working boars on the smallholding which also have names, and a small number of what she calls, “old lady pigs”, who are now retired sows who will live out their days there, wandering around in the woodlands. Considering her love for pigs, Martha said: “They’re really intelligent and mischievous. And unlike sheep, who will tend to run away from you, pigs will usually walk towards you because they are curious.

She added: “They’re very receptive to voice, and smell and hearing. They will sometimes walk with you, when you walk them from paddock to paddock. Usually I will walk them, and they’ll follow, not because their vision’s good because it isn’t. They know you, and the way you move. You can’t really make pigs do anything they don’t want to do. You have to persuade them that they want to do it.”

While Martha has been enjoying it, she said one of the most important parts of running her smallholding was that the pigs were also having a good time. They are all free range, which means that they are outdoors, all year around in large paddocks of pasture and woodland.

But, according to Compassion in World Farming, free range systems for pigs are not the norm. An estimated 40% of breeding sows in the UK are kept outdoors. Most piglets are brought indoors at weaning, with just 7% of growing pigs being reared outdoors and just 2% being finished outdoors.

Martha believes her type of free range farming is better for the consumer. She said: “I’d never really considered farming them any other way. My own personal views are that pigs belong outside. And what I have are UK breeds, and they can manage pretty cold temperatures and they really are bred to be outside.

“The indoor commercial pig trade are not built to be as robust as the old breeds so it was never an option for me to do it any other way. And it definitely, it has it’s challenges!”