When we were trying to decide whether or not to bring pigs onto the farm, we felt like it wasn’t worth doing it unless we could provide something really special to our customers and our families. After some research on the typical practices in commercial hog farms, we knew that we wanted to produce pork in a more natural environment. This meant not only avoiding routing antibiotics and questionable food, but also providing access to fresh air, green grass, and giving them the ability to root in the ground — all the same things they would be doing if they were out in the wild.
Pigs on Pasture?
Most pigs today live their lives on concrete floors with a roof over their head and metal bars at their side. Unlike most cow/calf operations, commercial pigs don’t even start their lives out on pasture. So we wanted to raise them out on grass as much as possible. Not only is this more humane, it provides a great supplement to their diet – they love to eat the green grasses and legumes (especially clover) around the farm. Just like grass-fed beef and pasture-based poultry, when pigs eat their greens, they end up providing us with healthier, leaner, and tastier food.
Pasturing pigs is never easy, because it’s nearly impossible to keep a pig in a typical barbed-wire fence. We discovered a great product called electric netting – an electrified net fence that can easily be moved to fresh grass with relative ease (and no tools!). So that makes it more practical to regularly move pigs (or poultry – which is the more common use) to fresh pasture.
Heritage Breeds
In order to successfully raise pork on pasture and satisfy our desire to create a truly exceptional product, we had to find a breed of pig that would work well with our system. We discovered that most commercial pigs are not well-suited to pasture-based systems, because many of their foraging instincts may have already been eliminated through breeding selection. Foraging and rooting aren’t necessary for pigs that are raised in a concrete cell (sounds kind of painful, actually).
Photo from Five Ponds Farm
So it turned out that the pigs with the qualities that we were seeking were heritage breeds — old breeds that a small group of farmers have taken care to maintain. The one that really proved to be attractive to us was the Red Wattle breed – known for their ability to forage, their maternal instincts, hardiness, and their lean, flavorful meat. The breed has won taste tests (judged by St. Louis chefs) against both commercial and other heritage breeds.
It turns out that the Red Wattle breed (and many of the other heritage breeds) is actually on the critically endangered list for the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy… so it might seem counterintuitive for us to suggest that they are great to eat! But it turns out that eating lots of a certain breed is one of the best ways to preserve it. By making it commercially viable to breed the animals, we ensure that the heritage breeders can stay in business. This year’s pigs were actually 3/4 Red Wattle, but we may move to full-blooded Red Wattles in the future.
Harnessing the Power of the Pig
Many farmers look with disdain on the idea of pigs rooting around their farm. We’ve found a great way to harness that power for our benefit, suggested to us by farmer Joel Salatin in Virginia. All winter long, our cattle eat hay inside the barn. We constantly add bedding materials to the mix to help absorb the manure and urine. We also add a bit of corn into the bedding throughout the winter. By the time spring arrives, the cattle have left behind a lot of nutrients on the ground, and it is all packed down under their feet (along with the uneaten corn).
Once the cattle have moved out onto the pasture, we turn the pigs loose inside the barn. They can root to their hearts’ content, and the corn provides good motivation. Once the pigs are done, the packed bedding is aerated and ready to spread on the pasture in the fall. So the pigs get to do what they love to do, and we get some free labor along the way.
So that’s the story of how we work with God’s design to help create a pork product that we can feel happy to feed to our families – and yours.
Do you have any pork or beef for sale yet? I may be interested in purchasing a whole hog or beef. Please contact me with some information.
Out of these 3 hogs that we currently have, we’re probably keeping the one female for breeding so we will be butchering two barrows. At least 1/2 hog will be kept for the family to eat/taste test, and we will probably have 3 halves for sale in mid to late fall. At least one person has already said that she wants to buy some so we could add you to the list and see what we have available when butcher time comes.
As far as beef goes, we don’t expect to have any until late spring or maybe even next fall. Even at that time we will only have one steer. Beef, especially grass fed, is a slow process and we’re looking at ways to possibly have more available in the next year or two, like possibly buying a few weaned steers from another Dexter breeder.
Thanks so much for your interest and if you’d like to be added to the list, send your information to steven@franciscanfamilyfarms.com
Yes, I want to support your farm and your plans to raise healthy and happy animals. I am a meat eater, in the right circumstances, also is our family. I want to know more about your heritage animals- of any sort – beef, chicken, pork -and be on your email list so I can order early, before you are sold out. I realize that I am a oregonian and that means shipping, but I think we can work it out.
Thanks Michelle. We’ll let you know when we have something for sale. 100% Grass Fed Dexter beef should be our next animal to harvest. We are also raising a Belted Galloway steer that should be ready next fall. The Galloway will provide us with much more meat to market and both steers are heritage breeds that we’re excited to support and expect to do well on pasture. We will have more Red Wattle pork next fall.
If you want it bad enough, I’m sure we can find a way to ship it.
Everyone, remember to email chris@franciscanfamilyfarms.com to get on our email list for available food. We will be expanding our very small flock of chickens this summer and will have eggs and maybe even a little meat!