Our smallholding
The Baytree Animals
The animals we breed at Smallholding Secrets, fall under the prefix ‘Baytree’.
Baytree British Lop Pigs
We breed British Lop pigs, one of the rarest native breeds. These pigs are rarer than Giant Pandas! They are a large, white, docile pig with huge floppy ears. They are very sociable, and enjoy a good chat and a tummy scratch. Our pigs are truly free-range. They have large paddocks to wander about at liberty, free to go indoors or outdoors as they wish. We encourage natural behaviours, such as rooting (digging up the soil) and with an abundance of oak and apple trees, these pigs have plenty to get get excited about come the fall. Pigs love both apples and acorns!
We believe that this free life ensures our pigs are happy pigs. In return, they bless us with beautiful litters of piglets and for those not breeding, the most delicious pork.
Baytree Alpacas
Huacaya alpacas wander around our fields protecting our animals from predators such as the fox, and even dogs. Alpacas are amazing guard dogs. Whilst they appear gentle, the power of these animals to protect should not be underestimated, nor should their smell (think of camels in a zoo and you get an idea)! Alpacas are intelligent, inquisitve and incredibly addictive! There is just something about an alpaca: some kind of magic, I think.
Our herd of beautiful alpacas contain elite, award winning genetics. We are committed to producing healthy, happy alpacas with superb confirmation and fibre.
Sheep
We have a few Ryeland x Kerry Hill sheep left from our days of breeding both breeds of large sheep. Recently, we moved to the native to Wales Balwen sheep, which are much smaller, and therefore, in theory, easier for one person to manage. The old ewes we have left have their individual personalities and are very much loved by the family. However, the Balwens are small sheep with massive characters! They make us laugh every day. Where we end up on our journey with these girls is yet to be seen, but so far it has been fun.
Goats
We have a couple of goats running around the place. Goats are their own boss! Flo, our very old Anglo-nubian cross, gets to do exactly what she pleases because she is old and somehow puts a spell on us with her big eyes that leads us to open field gates that should not have goats in. Snowy, our younger Saanen cross nanny, but by no means young, just does her own thing! Never has taken any notice of stupid humans or any other animal on the property.
Ponies
We have three beautiful ponies who are often put in their place by Snowy the goat. Kaos is a part bred Arab. Kaos has taught us never to name an animal by its character! He has spent every day of his 29 years on this earth, on this smallholding, causing chaos. He is adorable though and because he is so cheeky, funny and incredibly intelligent, he manages to get away with things, lots of things.
Lucky is a 10 year old minature Shetland mare. She is an absolute sweetheart and will stand all day long being groomed, which is perfect when the little people in the family want to spend time with the horses. In May, Lucky gifted us with this very cute baby, Polly Pocket. We have sheep bigger than her!
Ducks & Hens
We have a mix of Bluebell, Light Sussex and Black Copper Maran hens, along with a Black Orpington cockrell strutting around. There are some Aylesbury ducks and a Saxony drake waddling around too. They are all free range and lay delicious eggs for us.
A family adventure
In 1993, the Steel family moved from the Wirral to a smallholding, Pant, in Carmarthenshire: Mum, Dad, three children, Nan, a horse and a cat. The idea was to live a simpler way of life, to be out of the rat-race. We would grow vegetables in the garden and breed Gloucester Old Spot pigs to produce our own pork.
What an adventure!
And it was an adventure. Whilst both parents came from farming families, this was not immediate, their own parents had not farmed. We had always had horses, dogs, cats, rabbits and a couple of ducks, at one point, but never pigs or sheep or cows. We quickly settled in to filling our smallholding with animals. The first sale we went to, we bought some Leicester Longwool sheep. They gave us a steep learning curve! Next a pig and then a couple of calves arrived to fill our shed which appeared to have ever expanding walls. We don’t know how we fitted everything in back then, and we have since learnt that no matter how big or how many stables, sheds or barns you have, you always need more!
Over the years, the family has grown and grown up, but the Pant is very much at the heart of the family.
A re-discovery
We often forget to look at what is around us, taking what we see everyday for granted, to the point that we no longer see the beauty. During Covid lockdown 2020, we fell in love with the Pant all over again. We had time to stop and look at what was around us. We had beautiful weather during the first lockdown too, which really helped show the Pant off at her best. As Covid progressed, we, Mum (Michelle), Dad (Colin) and eldest daughter (Hayley) re-evaluated our lives. We realised that life had got in the way of our original dreams and we wanted to go back to the main aims: a simple life breeding rare breed pigs, we wanted to bring ourselves back to the land and animals. We also wanted to share a piece of our heaven with others…
Smallholding Secrets was born!
