After just three years of rearing one of the rarest breeds of pig in the country, a couple have won a top national prize.

Clare and Ken Robinson took the champion trophy at the Great Yorkshire Show with their magnificent middle white sow, Maggie.

And to top it all, Maggie’s son, Peregrine, was named champion January-born boar, was second in the overall boars’ competition and his two sisters came second and third in the section for gilts – unbred sows.

The victory was even sweeter because it was Clare and Ken’s first time as competitors and the breed was first developed in Keighley.

Only about 200 middle white sows are known to be kept in this country and Clare, a psychiatrist, and Ken, who runs an architectural business, are hoping to add to the blood stock. The breed is particularly distinguishable because of its comical snub nose.

“I fell in love with them on a visit to Temple Newsam farm, near Leeds,” said Clare, of Cowling, near Skipton. “I was taken in to meet the pigs and they were so wonderful and friendly.”

Won over by the animals, Clare and Ken bought three piglets and now, one generation later, they have produced Maggie.

“We were amazed to win and very pleased. I have never shown before and I didn’t think we had a cat in hell’s chance,” Clare said.

“It was so stressful taking Maggie round that I had decided not to bother entering the others, but I was persuaded by the judges.”

Now Clare has the competition bug and has entered Maggie in the Westmoreland Show in Kendal on September 11.

The middle white originated in Long Lee, Keighley, in 1856, after textile weaver Joseph Tulley worked for seven years to get a successful cross between a large white and a small white.

The breed is now registered with the British Pig Association Rare Breeds Society.

l Pig farmers have swapped their wellies for television cameras to make a three-part documentary film, The Pig Issue, about the crisis facing the industry.

It is being made by farmers across the country who are involved in the Pigs are Worth It campaign. The film will go out on their website pigsareworthit.com later this summer.

It comes as the Government’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee launches an inquiry into the crisis, which has seen pig farmers losing on average as much as £26 an animal.