Farm To Table Pork
FARM TO TABLE
I always have people ask me the same question, “Why do you raise pigs?” OR far more pointedly “How can you eat your pet pig?” This can be a hard question to answer. I can’t use the response “because they’re awesome” because that won’t answer their question adequately, yet what other recycling system converts an apple into bacon?
Our pigs are the heritage breed Wessex Saddleback, handled frequently from birth, and they most certainly do have personalities. Not all breeds do, but the older breeds tend to be very loving and gentle. I do love the pigs we farm, and enjoy scratching their bellies and watching them play incessantly. They follow the dog, the kids and I around like a puppy when we’re anywhere in sight. They know my voice and come running when they hear it. It does take some getting used to but unless you truly want a pig for a pet, you must always remember why he is there.
I’ve sat down and taken the time to write out a number of the reasons why pigs are the ultimate pets, and why raising them might something you should consider doing.
Benefits of Raising Pigs
Can I just start out saying, “I love keeping pigs”. Anyone who knows me can attest that I could go on and on about how enjoyable, intelligent and ultimately beneficial they are for us. Pigs are one of the most efficient animals you can raise in terms of meat. Over 80% of a pig’s body is usable meat and they don’t need acres of pasture to house them. Here are a few of the reasons why we love keeping pigs on the farm:
1. Turn Food Scraps into Pork – Pigs can eat eat all your leftovers or unsavory garden/orchard/brewery produce that would otherwise be wasted. My favorite part about raising pigs is how eco-friendly they make our household & business. All of our food scraps, garden waste and spent grains from the brewery get turned into future food. Slop, as it’s called saves on the cost of feed for your animals as well – they’ll even eat up yeast slurry and hop pellets after dry hopping!
2. Garden Prep – They till and prep your garden for you! The pigs root up soil with their noses which saves a ton of labor if you have a plot or row style garden. This year they’ve been in an area of land that will become a vegetable garden and orchard for the future.
3. Higher Quality Meat for Less – You can save greatly on the cost of pork. Raising your own meat can end up saving dollars per kg compared to grocery store. Plus, the meat will taste better when the pigs receive a more diverse diet and live a healthy, active lifestyle.
4. Free Fertilizer – Pig manure is a great addition to compost or garden soil after it has been aged for a few months. By letting pigs into your garden (or shoveling), they can fertilize the soil with their manure, so next year’s garden plants will be bigger, healthier and more productive – wait to see the produce to come from this land!
5. Fun and Educational for Kids – They are so fun to watch, especially for children. Pigs love to frolic and play. They pal up with their buddies and even have a social hierarchy within their herd. They love cooling off in a muddy puddle and will really appreciate being sprayed with water on hot days. My kids have a blast spraying the pigs with the hose as they cheerfully run through the shower, just like kids playing in the sprinkler.
6. Easy to House – Pigs don’t require a large space. Commercial pigs are often kept in tiny pens where they barely have enough room to turn around, so having an 50m x 50m yard, a stones throw from the brewery is by far a superior treatment. Since pigs are foragers, they benefit from diverse terrain that isn’t suited to much else, and on occasion we’ll let them out for a few hours to cleanup acorns under the oak trees as a treat.
7. Small Time Commitment – Yes, you can still take a holiday! As dependent as they sound upon human care, as long as they have full feeders and water barrels, they can be left alone for several days. There are no daily chores when it comes to caring for pigs.
Debunking Hog Myths
Hogs are dirty, stinky animals.
Quite the opposite actually. Pigs are pretty clean animals. They will designate a bathroom area within their enclosure off along the side and go there every time they need to eliminate. (This also makes it easy to remove their manure, if desired.) They do enjoy wallowing in cool mud at this time of year, but this is because they can’t sweat to regulate their body temperature. Mud also acts as a skin protectant from sunburn and biting insects so we ensure there’s always a mud pit on offer for them to achieve their beauty treatment.
Pigs are escape artists.
Pigs do not want to be outside of their enclosure. We have had a few pigs escape (because we stupidly had hay bales stacked next to the fence that they used as stairs, or a badly erected fence), but they don’t run away. They tend to forage under the oak trees, an eventually and try to get back in. They want to be where their food, water and friends are. Regular perimeter checks are necessary to make sure their rooting activities don’t create an escape tunnel. But they are generally happy inside their fence.
You can feed a pig anything and they will eat it
A pigs diet is not much different than that of a human. They don’t eat garbage or non-food items, in fact they can even be picky eaters at times. We certainly don’t feed pigs raw meat/eggs or anything moldy or spoiled. Although they can eat human food that’s just past its expiration date – especially dairy! We often end up with leftovers in the slop trough that everyone else turned their noses up at. Every pig has different taste preferences, but they all still eat like pigs!
Hogs are aggressive
Different breeds have different temperaments, but overall, domestic pigs are docile, friendly animals. They can be socialized when they are young and even trained to some extent. Because we deal with them on a daily basis, they end up getting used to having humans around. They are very motivated by food and treats, so we use these as a tool to get them to do what you want them to do. Most of the time, our pigs are excited to see us because they know it means a full tummy! While it is true that they are raised for meat I’m still a firm believer that a happy pig is a flavorful pig.
The Downside
This all sounds great, but what can go wrong you ask? Well, everyone has a different experience with raising pigs and each pig can have a vastly different temperament. These pigs this time around had an incredibly calm temperament, having largely been handled from birth and comfortable with humans. But apart from opinion, there are a few things that can make pig raising a real challenge.
1. Pigs Escaping / Unwanted Destruction – Although pigs generally do not want to be away from the safety of their friends, home and food, they’ll take advantage of an opportunity to forage and explore. Pigs will heavily tear up the earth with their noses. They are quite powerful and can create large holes in a very short amount of time. Keeping an eye on their fencing perimeter to make sure they don’t dig themselves an escape route has been a task this time around, and a well placed electric fence tends to discourage escape attempts.
2. They Attract Flies – Yes it’s true, fly’s can be an issue with just about any type of livestock. A muddy area just filled with live animals and their manure? A Fly’s paradise. But knowing this, we prepare with a few fly traps and the problem is pretty much diminished.
3. Emotional Ties at Butchering Time – There’s no easy fix for this one folks, other than setting clear expectations from the beginning. Before we began an adventure in pig farming, we’ve (inc the kids) always been acutely aware that the animals are raised solely for meat. It’s tough to prepare yourself mentally to care for animals and then butcher them when the time comes. I like to tell myself that I have given these animals a much healthier and happier life than any of them would have received in a commercial setting.
4. Transportation – There isn’t much! Short of bringing the piglets 30 mins north of their birth place, they’re housed, fed, harvested and eaten on site here at the brewery. Much like our principles when brewing estate beers, the food miles are minimal.
Harvesting (slaughtering) and butchering them is a task in itself – and because I only do it periodically, it’s always a case of trying to remember how to efficiently achieve the best results, without making too many mistakes. These are around the 7th or 8th iteration of pigs we’ve had, and its always been a task that I’ve done myself, a skillset that I always wanted to learn, and I’d like to think that each time I do it I learn a little more and become more efficient.
We do it all here at the brewery, and it’s almost the perfect place to slaughter and butcher a pig. Access to almost limitless hot water, a forklift/tractor to do the heavy lifting, and appropriately sized vessel to soak the pig, and the ability to keep it all clean and sanitised pretty effortlessly.
They’re in the cool room hanging for a week now, before I begin to butcher them. Hams first so they’re ready for Christmas lunch, and then the remainder of the cuts once a band saw arrives that will lessen the workload significantly.
Yes it can seem cruel or insensitive to kill an animal that we’ve nurtured for the past 5 months. Yet in reality, they’ve always been destined for this harvest, and I’d like to think they’ve had an incredibly relaxed and happy life that ultimately reached fulfillment. It’s how things occurred for 100/1000s of year prior. Self sufficiency as opposed to industrial production makes sense, both in pig and beer logic.
So that why/how we do it here. They’re terrific animals to keep, and if your thinking of doing so and want to ask a question please don’t hesitate to flick me a message or an email.
Cheers, Will
