PR lady turns pig farmer

THE narrow dirt path off the St Elizabeth thoroughfare was a little bumpy and long; but at the end of it stood Guthrie’s Farm and Market and its owner, 31-year-old public relations executive Shauna Guthrie.

Thankfully, the transition from advertising to farming has been a little smoother for Guthrie who started the business about six months ago with her husband, a full-time lecturer at the University of Technology (UTech). Prior to this, she had spent seven years as a promotions supervisor then brand manager for one of the largest biscuit companies in the island, a bank and later on a government agency.

“After my last place of employment, I decided to come into the business full-time and that’s when we decided that we were going to do everything, not only breeding and rearing, but going into slaughtering and delivering of pork, local goat and we did beef also,” explained Guthrie, who secured a loan from ScotiaBank to help start the business.

The young farmer has to slaughter at least 100 pigs each week to meet the demand of her clients who are very specific in their orders. Some are restaurateurs while others are high-end clients who have grown accustomed to getting the best quality for their money. It means, therefore, that Guthrie has one hectic schedule, starting from Monday when she leaves her gated middle-class community in St Catherine in the wee hours of the morning to source pigs and goats from small farmers to reach her quota. Slaughtering of the animals is done on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays under the supervision of a health inspector, before they are delivered to her clients across the island.

“It is not a glamorous job obviously, but I tell you, coming from marketing promotions, service marketing and brand management, this is quite different, but it is much, much more fulfilling,” she told All Woman. “At the end of the day, it is mine for one and secondly, you just feel proud and good within yourself because we have created employment for persons within the community.”

The community Guthrie refers to is a small farming one with little development and a wide expanse of unused land. Since starting up her business, she has provided a steady market for many small pig farmers and has employed a butcher, a driver and at least three other workers to help her in her slaughter house.

“The good thing about this business is that the demand is there, persons are eating pork and they want local pork. A lot of the jerk centres want the delivery. They want somebody who can not only just deliver pork, but they want good service,” she said

Guthrie is well aware that her customers rely on her for a steady supply of meats and to ensure this, she also started a pig husbandry complete with a hospice for ailing pigs and a maternity ward for those that are pregnant. The petite farmer spends hours feeding and nursing the animals, some weighing hundreds of pounds. She doesn’t seem the least bit intimidated by their size, however, and when her boar buries himself in mud and then transfers it on her with one shake of his huge form, she just laughs.

Given the bond between Guthrie and her animals, which at the time of our visit included over 70 goats who were roaming about, it’s hard to imagine that without a moment’s notice, they would become someone’s feast. But the farmer has no misgivings about slaughtering them; in fact she had just killed 30 goats the day prior to our visit.

The fact that she sports dreads and spends hours around pigs has not gone unnoticed by her workers and clients who tease her about this apparent oxymoron. But Guthrie doesn’t mind, as the contradiction has made her even more memorable.

“I didn’t eat pork before, but everyday they (workers) find something to cook,” she laughs, while alluding to the pot with pig trotters on a wooden fire outdoor. “They are always roasting, jerking or something and you start to taste and you take a little piece and you start taking more until it finishes.”

Guthrie is currently finishing up her first degree in Marketing at UTech where her husband of five years lectures mechanical engineering. Despite her tight schedule, she still finds time to fit in her pedicures, a few parties and her weekly church services. While her mornings are hectic, evenings are reserved for her and her husband who is able to take leisurely trips with her to the farm on weekends to do their inventory and look at ways to improve their business.

The two are not yet parents, but no one would know, judging from Guthrie’s frequent trips to the supermarket to source infant formula for her kids who are without mothers. Her two youngest are a pair of two-week-olds whose mother died the day after giving birth.

Having owned only a couple fish while growing up, Guthrie is still amazed at how far she has come in the past few months, especially since her fish usually died after just two days. She credits her knowledge of farming to “Google” and her extension officer at the Rural Agricultural Development Agency. Like most modern day farmers, her BlackBerry is never far and she uses it to conduct research and plan her day.

“At the end of the day, it is just a good balancing act, time management is key, so I can’t spend all day on Facebook,” she shares.

Now that she has got a handle on running a farm, Guthrie hopes to go into the processing of her own meats, hams and sausages over the coming months. She has also started the process of setting up a bio-digestive plant and hopes to start planting more ground provisions to add to the sweet potatoes and cassava she currently reaps on her large plot of land.

“I would encourage persons to look at starting their own business. What I normally say to persons is this, if persons can sell gizzada and drops and survive, why is it you have to go out and work for somebody? You go out and work for somebody and they give you sales quota and you achieve your quota, so why is that you can’t achieve it for yourself?” said the young farmer who takes pleasure in being her own boss.