Local farmer wins agriculture award

COORABELL pig farmer John Singh has been recognised with a prestigious Champions of the RAS Award from the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW.

The award is one of the Society’s highest honours, celebrating individuals who have shown exceptional dedication to the Sydney Royal Easter Show and made significant contributions to the wider agricultural industry.

Mr Singh has been farming pigs for 50 years and first began exhibiting at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in 1983. Over the decades, he has built a strong reputation, taking out Pig of the Show titles in 1997 and 1998. More recently, he has achieved the highest price at the Show’s pig auction two years running — $1,600 for a large white boar last year, and $2,300 this year.

Mr Singh’s ancestors migrated from Punjab in north-western India in the 1800s to work as labourers. His father, Manga Singh, bought land in St Helena in 1952 and Talofa in 1961, eventually settling on an 80-hectare farm along Coolamon Scenic Drive, where the family still lives today.

A well-respected figure in the local community, Mr Singh has been a member of the Bangalow Lions Club for more than 40 years. He and his wife Kamal are also active in the Bangalow Sikh temple, and Kamal is beloved locally for the home-cooked curries she serves at Coorabell Hall every Friday night.

In addition to his farming achievements, Mr Singh owns Mullumbimby-based butchery Byron Bay Pork and Meats.

Now 67, he’s beginning to wind back from what was once a large-scale operation. “I used to have thousands of pigs,” he said. “Now I’ve only got about 40 breeding sows left. The industry has changed a lot.”