Doherty was also seen installing his stock fencing upside down while the open ground for his freerange pigs had to be cut back because the owners of his rented land were planting saplings. Three of the eight Essex pigs he started with fell seriously ill after being left outside in cold weather last October. One later died.
Things were so bad at one stage that Doherty handed over a quarter share in his Essex Pig Company to a more experienced farmer in exchange for advice and loan of machinery.
Doherty spent his childhood years at school with Jamie Oliver. When his friend left for catering college, he pursued his passion for nature.
Until last summer he was living in a flat above an undertaker's in Walthamstow, working in lowly office jobs to fund a PhD in insectology.
He believes he can make real money from his free-range pigs by producing his own sausages and bacon. That way he and his girlfriend Michaela Furley can earn £500 per pig instead of the £75 they make wholesale.
'People are intrigued by my story,' Doherty boasted after Princess Anne visited his stall at the Suffolk Show earlier this month.
'Between 3.7 and 4.2million people are watching my programme and my pen's getting worn out from signing copies of my book today. I'll be a farmer till I die.'
Not everyone is convinced. 'Mark my words,' said one pig farmer. 'As soon as all the fuss dies down it won't be so easy and that'll be the end of the Essex Pig Company.'
