Demand For Pastured Pigs Is Growing !

fordy · #1 01/21/14, 06:31 AM

...............The market for Pastured Pigs is a growing market ! One of the problems is finding a commercial butcher to process them for the market . There is a very interesting article in the NYT's this AM about the growth for PP's .
................There are a couple of companies who contract with small farmers to raise PP's under specific environmental conditions . Apparently , the small producers are making enough of a Profit that more and more folks with small acreages are getting into the business with as little as 3 or 4 sows producing 10 to 12 piglets per litter ! I'll try to provide a link to the article . , fordy

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/bu...&rref=business

Awnry Abe · #2 01/21/14, 07:05 AM

They are insanely tasty. I hope the market takes off. There is quite an opportunity for some small farmers to make a buck.

I have one USDA inspected place an hour away, and one that does state inspections a few times a month about 30 minutes away.

geo in mi · #3 01/21/14, 08:05 AM

A lot of city folk and those upscale buyers of pastured pork may be under a mistaken assumption that all the pork they buy is raised solely on grass, outdoors, all year long.....Not so, as this video will show.

Back, in the day, we and our neighbors raised pastured pigs and thought nothing of it. They were on grass, but they also got a lot of ground corn, oats, wheat, mineral supplements, dried milk or buttermilk. In the fall, the sows cleaned up the corn that the picker missed, before coming in out of the weather for the winter. They also wallowed in mud during the hot months.

In those years, 1950's, soybeans and CAFE feeding were not part of the equation. (And usually you had to request the fat be trimmed off the chops...that would cost you extra...)

geo

SJSFarm · #4 01/21/14, 08:20 AM

I have a ? I saw an ad in CL recently for Idaho Pastured Pig, they were touting it as a new breed which was developed with an upturned snout. This makes it easier for them to graze and does not damage the ground they are placed on.

They were asking $85 per piglet, not breeding stock. Is this the way to go for small farmers? or do the regular breeds do just as well so long as the farmer rotates smaller pastures or uses large ones?

I've been thinking of doing a pig or two, and have had people ask me if I'd raise one for them.

fordy · #5 01/21/14, 08:35 AM

................The lady in the video has got her act together ! She has produced multiple video's which look like a complete video seminar on raising pastured pigs . , fordy

Marcia in MT · #6 01/21/14, 09:39 AM

We put one into the freezer a couple of months ago (from a local farmer), and it's some of the tastiest pork I've ever had!

whiterock · #7 01/21/14, 11:14 AM

Judgin from the shape of my pasture, I got LOTS of pastured pigs, course I call em feral hogs, when I'm talkin nice.

**highlands** · #8 01/21/14, 12:28 PM

Our pigs are outside all year on grass. In the winter the grass is hay, just like sheep and cattle. Hay is summer saved over like the canned goods we put up for our family during the winter.

We've been doing pastured pigs for over a decade. During that time we've hard selected to improve our genetics starting with Yorkshire x Berkshire x Large Black x Tamworth to produce our Mainline herd. Genetics do matter as does management - we use managed rotational grazing in the summers and deep bedding packs on winter pastures among other things. They are able to pasture completely and be outdoors year round getting to market weight in about nine months on just pasture in the warm season or about six to seven months on pasture/hay+whey. In the winter we use hay to replace the pasture - not as good but it's like us putting up canned goods for our own table. See http://SugarMtnFarm.com/pigs

We sell weekly, mostly wholesale to local stores and restaurants but also to some individuals. Most of our sales our local but some is regional and some further. Currently my wife trucks our pigs to Mass each week to get them butchered at a USDA facility. However that will soon change as we're putting the finishing touches on our own on-farm USDA/State inspected meat processing facility. I was putting in PEX water lines this morning. See http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop

Just throwing pigs out on a field doesn't make them pastured. You'll need to learn to do managed rotational grazing, how to improve the forage qualities, select good genetics, learn management and the pigs need to learn to graze. It's both genetic and cultural. Ideally they learn from their mothers. Our first pigs to learn grazing learned from our sheep.

Cheers,

-Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/

SmokeEater2 · #9 01/21/14, 04:22 PM

I'm going to pasture raise a couple of pigs myself this year. Butcher one and sell one hopefully covering the cost of the meat we keep. At the current price of grocery store pork I would imagine more folks are thinking that good pasture raised pork is not priced that high after all.

BTW, highlands that is a nice place you have there!

just_sawing · #10 01/22/14, 08:08 PM

As a kid it was normal to hog off a corn field. People would plant a corn crop then in the late and winter run a sled or tractor down a couple of rows and the hogs would eat the corn. The old varieties were tall and the hogs didn't get the knack of knocking them down. When the field was hogged eat the hogs.